Books and bottles
Books and bottles
I tend to be a greedy reader, gobbling up the story as I race through the pages, often guiltily because I know I’m not doing justice to the writer’s painstaking work. But the book I’m reading now is one I keep putting aside because it is so beautifully written, I can hardly bear to finish it.
How to paint a dead man by Sarah Hall has a number of threads to it (a good way to slow down greedy readers), and one of these threads is the translated diary of an old artist in Italy who has spent most of his life painting bottles. It draws fairly clearly on the life and work of Giorgio Morandi, so to slow down my reading, and to make the book last longer, I decided to find out more about Morandi and his paintings.
Sorry to tell you that while on one hand I’m a greedy reader, I’m a lazy writer on the other, so I’m not going to make this a tidy and well-researched post about Morandi – I’ll just stick in some pics of his bottles and give you this choice quote from his Wikipedia entry :
“His drawings and watercolors often approach abstraction in their economy of means.”
Painting is pretty much a mystery to me. I share my studio with two painters and I watch their work change and grow with interest, but with absolutely no understanding of what they’re up to. Maybe one day I’ll get a chance to give it a bash – wield a brush and some colours, and see how it works. In the meantime, it’s nice to have a bit of daily mystery to slow down and wonder about as I rush back and forth though our studio.
Michelle | Cicada Studio
I saw an exhibition of Morandi's work last year or so. I find it very impressive – I'm drawn to his work and his style of painting- in color/form/tone. I very much enjoy it.
Candied Fabrics
How neat to see you admit that painting is a mystery to you…I thought there was some secret that only I didn't understand! With painting,s I know what I like, and know what I don't, but am so often hard pressed to say why!Thanks for pointing out Morandi to me – love his use of color and texture!
Dee Beale
I'm on the look out for a good book at the moment, maybe i'll give this a try.
Andria Lisle
your post reminded me of an article I read about Morandi in the New Yorker last year — love that he never left Italy (who would need to???) except for a single trip to Switzerland…here's a link: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/artworld/2008/09/22/080922craw_artworld_schjeldahllove, love, love this description:"Color works hard in Morandi. His hues tend toward muddy pastels, always warm. He employs an unabridged dictionary of browns. Even his blues and greens usually secrete invisibly admixed red or yellow, insuring the projection of “an extraordinary set of grays far into the gallery” which Celmins noted. The colors are muted like voices lowered so as not to disturb a sleeper; but their melody and tone penetrate. A Morandi grabs your eye at any distance. Moreover, it’s the same picture at any distance, as resolved and unresolved near at hand as far away. (His comprehension of art history skips the Baroque and every other type of synthesized illusion.) Morandi has never been a popular artist and never will be. He engages the world one solitary viewer at a time. The experience of his work is unsharable even, in a way, with oneself, like a word remembered but not remembered, on the tip of the tongue."
Heather Moore
Andrea, thanks so much for the link, and for that amazing description. I wonder if Morandi is an artist who inspires writers to look for just the right words to describe what he does?
Francesca
i'm a big morandi fan. he influences my work all the time. lovely post.
Jessica
Crazy – I was just reading a post about Morandi on jewelry artist David Neale's (spectacular) blog last night. The two of you featured the same Morandi painting! Perhaps you're kindred spirits : )Neale's thought-provoking hypothesis about Morandi's work: "When distilled down to an essence, what Morandi was really arranging was a relationship between two types of happiness- the rustic and the refined, the humble and the transcendent." Here's his full post: http://thegoldensmith.blogspot.com/2009/02/quiet-enjoyment-of-morandi.html
Novi On The Go
Funny how I saw a book about him at the library and just had to reach over to open it. It turned out to be a great read with descriptions of his styles and works: paintings oil and watercolor, etchings, drawings. Marvellous! I ended up renewing it and keeping it for 2 whole months. It inspired me to look at objects more closely, how to use different colors, explore the different ways to depict something. His landscapes are especially beautiful too I think.The book I borrowed is Giorgio Morandi by authors Franz A. Morat and Ernst-Gerhard Guse. Here's the link from Amazon:http://www.amazon.com/Giorgio-Morandi-Franz-Morat/dp/3791339532/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252967556&sr=1-3
flowerpress
Love Morandi. This is my favourite in our local gallery:http://collection.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/results.do%3Bjsessionid=29AD76D719269AF45279D9F964FEDBA4?id=142539&db=object&keyword-0=MLETTER&sort=name&browse=western%2Fmodern%2Fbrowse&field-0=user_sym_39&bool-0=AND&field-1=user_sym_41&bool-1=AND&view=detail&dept=western%2Fmodern&value-1=Western+Art%2FModern%2FPaintings
Ansie
I also gobble up a book instead of savouring it. And just like you I have never tried painting before, even though I consider myself creative/artistic. I still want to try it though. Thanks for intruducing me to Morandi, I have never seen his work before, but will definetely look out for it (and some of the books/articles mentioned) now.
Momma Bear
i enjoy morandi too, always have. cool to see others do too.
David Neale
great topic… thanks for bringing it all together!something that puzzles me about Morandi;he was really really careful and methodical with the placement of the bottles ( he even had this complicated grid system laid out on the table), tightly controlling the relationships of the forms in the composition…but then comes his signature! Always that big, loopy brushy script…was it also considered as a compositional element?it must be. i really enjoy the tensions between all these things; the many plays on opposites in Morandi…the care versus the asperity…Genius!
kellytirman
I love Morandi. He is the painter's painter.
Ruth
I've seen people recommend SH's book but no one mentioned the Morandi connection. That info makes it a must read rather than a may read.
Urban Scribbler
Love these paintings! Now I've got some research to do. Is the book yours? Can I borrow it?
Heather Moore
Yup, it's my book, but Medina's reading it. You're next in the queue, ok?