Shut The Door And Listen From Outside
Steven S. Powers / Winter 2020 Catalog "Shut The Door And Listen From Outside" is a statement from Oblique Strategies, which is a set of cards each with a suggestion, directive, or constraint created by the artists Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt to encourage lateral thinking and to break creative blocks. With this in mind, as an art dealer or collector, one may think, how will this look if I see it indirectly? From a room away? Through a window? Obscured through a crowd of people? Or as I quickly scroll through Instagram? This question is not a shallow proposition—we often see a particular artwork from an off-angle or perspective—not in optimal presentation. Indeed, if we think about it, we likely first approached an artwork we came to love because it looked good "from outside." It had something special going on from a small section we gleaned through a crowd of people, or the composition came into focus as we came towards it from another room. As an artist, we may interpret this as another way of seeing. To purposely not see clearly or overtly—to create something anew based on partial information or hazy suggestions seen or heard. Or another way to look at a work in progress. View it from the side, across the room, or without glasses to see a fuzzy tonal map—does it still work for you?
Steven S. Powers / Winter 2020 Catalog
"Shut The Door And Listen From Outside" is a statement from Oblique Strategies, which is a set of cards each with a suggestion, directive, or constraint created by the artists Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt to encourage lateral thinking and to break creative blocks.
With this in mind, as an art dealer or collector, one may think, how will this look if I see it indirectly? From a room away? Through a window? Obscured through a crowd of people? Or as I quickly scroll through Instagram? This question is not a shallow proposition—we often see a particular artwork from an off-angle or perspective—not in optimal presentation. Indeed, if we think about it, we likely first approached an artwork we came to love because it looked good "from outside." It had something special going on from a small section we gleaned through a crowd of people, or the composition came into focus as we came towards it from another room.
As an artist, we may interpret this as another way of seeing. To purposely not see clearly or overtly—to create something anew based on partial information or hazy suggestions seen or heard. Or another way to look at a work in progress. View it from the side, across the room, or without glasses to see a fuzzy tonal map—does it still work for you?
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<strong>The</strong> Crucifixion<br />
Lucia Wilcox (1902-1974)<br />
Ink and watercolor on paper<br />
Circa: 1972/73<br />
Size: 14 1/2" (h) x 8 1/2" (w) (sight)<br />
Provenance: Private New York Collection.<br />
Lucia Wilcox painted this shortly after becoming blind from a tumor<br />
pressing on her optic nerve.<br />
An immigrant from Lebanon she moved to New York in 1938 and<br />
settled in Amagansett in 1942 and was very close friends with Lee<br />
Krasner, Jackson Pollock and Willem De Kooning.<br />
Though Lucia (as she was simply known) struggled to gain traction<br />
with her earlier work—her “blind” work found an audinece.<br />
On painting blind she said, “I see better than anybody. I have<br />
eliminated all the details. My mind is free of static. I don't have any<br />
distractions.”<br />
In 1974, shortly before her death, Lucia had a solo exhibition of her<br />
“galaxy” paintings at the Leo Castelli Gallery.
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