Henry Koerner, Visiting Artist Lecture 1953

Henry Koerner gives a lecture at Skowhegan talking about his artistic practice. Koerner’s lecture covers many of his interests: American illustrators, New Yorker Covers, and a wide range of artists whose practices Koerner learns from. Koerner shares his desire to understand the visual aspect of reality through painting. For Koerner, painting is an investigation and an expression of philosophy in which the painting is a screen on which his concept of reality is presented. For Koerner, the subjective idea of telling a story is something he tries to represent through color, shape and lines; which is his goal as a painter. Whenever Koerner is presented with a literal idea, he seeks to investigate it through painting. Koerner is curious to continue exploring his subconscious in painting and also see how painting can bring about a change of attitude towards the world that artists live in.