Sunday 14 April 2013


Act 1, Scene 5

The narrative began with Act 1, scene 1 on April 10, 2013.
To access all scenes, scroll to blog archive at the bottom of the page.


We hear the clatter of demitasses and lattes as waiters place them on the small tables. The delightful aromas of coffee and fresh cornetti (con crema and con cioccolato) float over the piazza. Conversations relax into a sleepy buzz, and for now everyone becomes part of the lazy ritual of afternoon coffee time. The light warms and softens as shadows slowly lengthen. Here and there people bid each other "buona sera," and drift off in various directions, singly, in couples and in small groups

Inside CaffĂ© Florian , Barnett Newman and Agnes Martin have joined Velazquez, De Kooning, Van Gogh, and Brice Marden

Newman
I'm enjoying this; it's a very interesting group of artists. I was just speaking to a young Canadian painter outside, John Kissick. He's having some trouble keeping the spark of our enterprise alive within himself, I think. You know, the whole project of abstraction. And I suppose I can relate to his feelings of doubt; after all, our trajectory as a group – if you can accept for a moment that we share this journey (I mean abstract painters), despite the differences in our approaches – the trajectory is rather steep. We are a fairly young phenomenon, not even as enduring yet as the periods we call early to high Renaissance. We are perhaps 100 years old, and a bit. And like the art of the early Renaissance – small altarpieces, and then some frescoes by Giotto and Massacio, for example – the pioneers of abstraction often produced quite modest works. And why not? Who would have had the confidence, in the early days to make a painting 20' long? Nobody. But what guts they had to step out on that ledge!

My own feeling is that, in order to truly feel the achievement of any certain period of innovation, you have to 'become' one of those artists. You have to know, in your heart, the authentic, genuine self of the artist who felt he or she simply had to do something in a new way – in a way that felt right, that felt compelling and authentic to that artist. That, I think, is the beauty of a gathering like this. Just look around. These people are just like us. They couldn't help themselves. They were compelled to do what they did. And I, for one, feel privileged to sit among people whose innermost expression of their humanity has found its way into a physical realm where we can all try to connect with that humanity.

Marden, removing his wide-brimmed straw hat, and placing on an empty chair with Van Gogh's ...
I agree, Barny. Art is a humanist endeavour. You have to get inside the "why" of an artist to really understand the work. You and I are small links in this connected legacy – Newkirk is calling it The Juicetrain – we come out of the Renaissance, no question. We're all connected, back as far as that and farther I think. What was it Andy said? "Everybody is influenced by everybody."And look at all these people we don't know yet. This is like being a kid in a candy shop. These artists are all doing such interesting things. Ideas we can pick up and turn over in our hands while we chat. What a blast.

Sips his espresso, and continues. The others defer patiently for now ...

And look at all these people we don't know yet. This is like being a kid in a candy shop. These artists are all doing such interesting things. Ideas we can pick up and turn over in our hands while we chat.

But this testing of faith is common to all great achievements in the arts. How can we feel the achievement, the fire of Michelangelo? There's only one way – you have to be him for a moment. You have to imagine your hands on that impossible block of marble that became the David. You have to experience his compulsion. Otherwise, you're just going to be looking at a hunk of rock that some guy chipped away at. And I think the closer you are to a particular ethos, the more compelling it is to question it. It's like self doubt, and it's a healthy thing, don't you think? Sounds to me like this Kissick is turning it all over in his hands. It'll be interesting to see what comes out of his questions.