drmstream[writing]

From the NY Times obit­u­ary of Albert York, the painter who died last week at 80:

“Rarely mea­sur­ing more than 12 inches on a side, Mr. York’s paint­ings evoke a world in which time and art seem to stand still or even move back­ward through history.”

It’s hard to write about art: the act of describ­ing or crit­i­ciz­ing a paint­ing or sculp­ture is inevitably reliant on per­sonal lan­guage and con­text that is rel­e­vant to a small audience.

Calvin Tomkins tried to describe York’s work and wrote cir­cles around it in his char­ac­ter­is­ti­cally clear prose. The net was, Look at these great paint­ings! No one has ever seen the artist! But he’s still alive and liv­ing in Water Mill!

Some­times, just look at works of art. They’ll speak to you in very sim­ple ways. Then stop look­ing and walk away.

Here’s the link to the Tomkins arti­cle: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1995/06/19/1995_06_19_076_TNY_CARDS_000373553