Henry Varnum Poor, Resident Artist Lecture 1959

Henry Varnum Poor gives a lecture talking about the role of contemporary painting, with a specific focus on how Henri Matisse has shaped the conversation of painting, showing a series of his slides. Poor also talks about the way Skowhegan has fostered an environment to nurture students on how to be artists with multiple points of view, and tells participants not to be committed to a single point of view before they have evolved completely so they do not stifle their voices as artists. Poor says that Skowhegan’s mandate is to delay one’s consideration as arrived geniuses or lonely spirits trying to express themselves, and that Skowhegan tries to make artists forget about themselves and invest so much in the pursuit of knowledge that they arrive at their own voice naturally. Poor makes comparisons to other residencies like Yaddo and MacDowell, and says that what sets Skowhegan apart from them is that it will always function as a school. Poor also tries to make artists realize that any point of view which they may push or develop as an artist must be based on a very fine understanding of the world, and the visual world. Poor states that he believes artists must tap into nature and that the simplest means allow an artist to truly tap into themselves, while painting with reason alone makes a work an artifice. Poor ends his lecture by stating that ultimately that every work of art is a fusion of the artist, their spirit, and the material they work with.