Lecture Archive

Philip Pavia gives a lecture at Skowhegan and shows a series of slides talking about his artistic practice. Pavia investigates themes of space, history, light, and colour to explore consciousness, movement and space his interdisciplinary practice which spans drawing, watercolour, and sculpture; particularly marble and stone carving. Pavia further describes these themes, explaining to the participants that he divides the way he approaches art into two canons: looking for sensibilities and ideas. Pavia sees sensibilities as something when different senses come together to create ecstasy, and build ideas which artists can find and form over time. Pavia also engages with an intimate conversation with the participants, telling them to strive to always create masterpieces in their work. Pavia explains that a masterpiece is something artists see in your mortal life and never forget it again, and tells the participants to seek this out. 

Paul Resika gives a lecture talking about his painting practice which spans still life, portraiture, and landscape, as well as his exploration with abstract expressionism. Resika is interested in creating sensations with figurations in his painting practice, and talks about the wide variety of materials he has used in his paintings. Some of the themes he explores in his work include sensitivity, ecstasy, rebirth, erotica, sexuality, and love. Resika explains the other mediums his paintings have led him too, which include photography, sculpture, working with marble, and stone carving in particular, which emerged from his interest in portraiture. He also reflects on how abstraction has led on him to explore light and space and he discusses how these things emerge from our experiences. Resika ends his lecture telling participants that there are masterpieces out there for them to see, and seeing a masterpiece is something they will never forget in their mortal life. He further articulates that it is the artists duty to find masterpieces and approach them. When they do this, it will allow them to explore any subject or narrative they would like, and this will lead them to sit with the unknown.

Richard McDermott Miller gives a lecture at Skowhegan talking about his artistic practice. Miller’s work is rooted in sculpture, with a primary interest in figurative sculpture. Miller immerses himself in mediums such as bronze, plaster, plexiglass, and painting. Miller tells the participants the importance of choosing something of their own and intensely studying it; with subject, medium, and style coming secondary to that. Miller says that it is important for artists to find a suitable problem that they can figure out. Miller ends his lecture stating that figurative art isn’t a return to a past, but instead a rejection of the immediate past and the art establishment.

Mark Oxman gives a lecture at Skowhegan talking about his sculptural practice. Oxman’s sculptural works are inspired by his interest in the figure. Oxman discusses the distinctions between modeling and sculpting, which he identifies as being separate fields in European conceptions of art, with Oxman preferring to be called a modeler rather than a sculptor. Oxman works in a variety of materials and states that his need to expand into different materials was inspired by his time as a participant at Skowhegan in the 1960s as well as his time studying sculpture in England. Some of the sculptural mediums Oxman explores includes welding, bronze, clay, salt, and aluminum powder. Oxman explores both figurative and abstract mediums in his sculptural practice. Oxman ends the lecture by telling the participants that the only thing that counts as art is when something becomes personal, for art should be something one does that nobody else can do.

Artist Louise Nevelson invites the audience to ask questions which lead her into a wide range of issues, returning frequently to her central philosophical theme that for the artist, life is art, and that, in making art, the artist should always return to that life center in whatever way matters to him or her.

In his fourth lecture at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (additional lectures in 1965, 1967, 1968, 1978 and 1986), painter Philip Pearlstein shows a film done by one of his models of him working on three pieces: a lithograph, an etching and a wash drawing. He also shows slides of earlier work and recent work (paintings, drawings and prints). Autobiographical information and anecdotes about the New York art world in the 1950s and beyond punctuate the presentation, and the speaker chronicles his evolution to what he refers to as an ambiguous position as a New Realist. A considerable portion of the lecture is devoted to comments on printmaking.

Paul Georges gives a lecture at Skowhegan where he shows slides from the last thirteen years of work in his painting practice. Georges begins his lecture by criticizing the slide as a tool of art education, stating that it loses the physical reality of the painting which is half of what he is interested in. He goes on to explain that painting and being able to see his old works allows him the pleasure of seeing how his perspective has changed over time and to create a past for himself. Georges warns participants not to destroy their work, as then they will lose this pleasure of a past for themselves, and create a big handicap for their development. Georges then goes on to talk more in depth about his painting practice. For him, being a contemporary painter is symbolized by the process of placing the horizon in his work. In his painting practice, Georges is seeking a way for people to be together, define relationships, and remove the alienation between people. Georges mentions the importance of having something to connect one’s paintings to. Georges ends the lecture by telling participants that when they learn how to speak the language of art, they are obligated to say something, for if they don’t say anything, they will be deemed as nothing.

Jack Levine gives a lecture at Skowhegan talking about his artistic practice. Levine explains that learning to draw can allow artists to reinvent things not yet seen or imagined. Levine mentions the importance of studying the great masters of the past has had for him, for this allows him to try and grasp their methods and techniques. Levine states to the participants of the importance for him to root his work in the art of the past. When he does this it allows Levine to understand that art is about the history of man, and it is humanly oriented to creating a record of what man has passed through. Levine then goes on to show a series of slides talking about his drawing and painting practice and the many historical artists who have influenced him. Levine’s interest in the history of painting looks at its many material shifts; from oil to stain glass to even sculptural forms. Themes of identity, religion, politics, technology, orientalism, and historical memory serve as the subject base for Jack Levine’s work. Ambiguity is also very important for Jack Levine and he profoundly believes in social content in his paintings by making these ideas explicit. Levine ends his lecture talking about his experiences serving as a faculty member at Skowhegan as well.

Brice Marden shows a series of slides of famous works of art to include a wide range of historical painters. The subject matter Marden touches upon ranges from portraiture, landscape, still life, and more. Marden in particular talks about Picasso being an artist who reintroduced subject matter into painting, and Cezanne being an artist who almost got rid of subject matter in his painting.

Richard McDernmott Miller gives a lecture at Skowhegan talking about his artistic practice. Miller’s work is rooted in sculpture, primarily interested in figurative sculpture. Miller immerses himself in mediums such as bronze, plaster, plexiglass, and painting. Miller tells the participants of the importance in choosing something of their own and intensely studying it; with subject, medium, and style coming secondary to that. Miller says that it is important for artists to find a suitable problem that they can figure out. Miller ends his lecture stating that figurative art isn’t a return to a past, but instead a rejection of the immediate past and the art establishment.

Donald Perlis gives a lecture at Skowhegan where he talks in length to the participants about his artistic practice. Perlis reflects on the various techniques he has used in his paintings and drawings, borrowing from the style of the old masters. Perlis’s paintings span motifs including still life, the figure, and landscape. Perlis is interested in the role drawing plays in his practice, and how his drawings eventually get buried into his paintings. For Perlis, speed is something that is not of a big concern for he works very slowly, only producing around four to five paintings a year. Perlis comments on the importance of the design of the picture plane to always respect the painting. Perlis then tells the participants to find out what the importance is in making art for themselves. When artists have a clear conception in their mind, they can create art freely, otherwise their art will look dead. Perlis then goes on to talk about the current moment in painting, and how it is reviving a lot of historic value. Even though photography came in and filled the gap that painting wasn’t filling, photography wasn’t able to replace painting, and even though some painters stopped painting representationally because of where their ideas were taking them, representational painting has also not been replaced. Perlis ends his lecture by stating that his concept of painting is very linear. The more he paints the more definite it becomes of the kind of work he wants to create and artist he wants to be.

William Pettet gives a lecture at Skowhegan talking about historical artists and their painting practice, showing slides of their works. Throughout the lecture Pettet talks in length of each painter he surveys, ranging from their use of colour, composition, use of material, and subject matter. Pettet moves through many movements in painting including but not limited too; renaissance, rococo, impressionism, fauvism, cubism, Russian constructivism

Using slides borrowed from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, painter Anne Poor gives a historic overview of fresco. She comments, often speculatively, on the techniques, materials, and characteristics of the style of the artists whose work she shows. This is followed by examples of her own work—fresco, works on canvas, other paintings and drawings, with brief commentary.

John Ashbery gives a lecture at Skowhegan where he does a reading of his poetry from his various poetry collections. Ashbery talks about his collaborations with artist Alex Katz who has provided illustrations for his poetry collections, as well as the influence that the poets Ella Wheeler Wilcox and John Clare have had on his practice. Ashbery also talks about his various shifts in poetry, specifically turning to sestina and prose poetry later on in his career.

Michael Biddle gives a lecture at Skowhegan where he talks about the history of Egyptian, Ajanta and Roman wall and cave painting as well as Italian renaissance paintings. Biddle explains how Roman and Egyptian paintings were done on tombs and caskets and how they also shifted to the wall as well. Biddle shows slides of these works, encouraging the participants to study these slides; especially participants who are interested in fresco. Biddle further explains to the students to think about how three dimensional elements can be incorporated into a flat wall, and different techniques of fresco and mural painting that are used. Biddle then goes on to talk about materials used including tempera, pigments and hot wax being mixed together and then being directly applied to the wall. Biddle ends his lecture explaining more about the fresco technique, including applying paint on wet plaster and using pigment to dissolve it into water, and tells the participants that there is no glazing or underpainting used in these processes, but instead artists work directly with pigment. Biddle also tells the participants of the importance of conceiving of a complete idea before taking that idea one has and turning it into a fresco.

Alex Katz gives a lecture at Skowhegan where he shows a series of slides depicting his work from the 1950s and 1960s. Katz talks about his painting practice spanning portraiture, still life, and landscape. He also talks about his collage works, and how collage has helped him with his exploration of colour through form, volume and working with scale. Katz tells the participants of the importance drawing has had on his practice, and how drawing has helped him execute his paintings through creating a body of preliminary sketches as an entry point to construct his paintings. Katz further explains to the participants that the importance of scale in his work has allowed him to stretch his images in a large-scale way. Katz ends his lecture by stating that he continues to think of colour in terms of light, and how to apply this light correctly in his painting.

Gabriel Laderman gives a lecture at Skowhegan talking about his painting practice. Laderman is interested in the idea of paintings being quiet and imbued with a sense of calm, logic, and order. Laderman is not interested in using painting as a tool of therapy, or creating paintings in a state of anger. Instead, Laderman is interested in ideas of schemas and making representations through invention. Laderman tells the participants to engage with as much visual culture as they can, and then when they do this, they have the chance to appreciate many different kinds of paintings. When this appreciation happens, it can change people so they can look at the world differently and think differently about themselves. Laderman ends his lecture by telling the participants that if a painting is a complete world that is different from the world they would normally experience, then that world has to change.

Donald Perlis gives a lecture at Skowhegan where he shows a series of his works over the last six years: 1965-1971, while reflecting on his time as a participant at Skowhegan in the 1960s. Perlis is interested in working constantly from memory which leads him to explore the process of elimination and thinking about eliminating formal structures in his paintings. Perlis tells the participants that the more he learns from his anatomy, the more he is able to work from memory. Perlis tells the participants how he continues to shift back and forth between painting and charcoal and the process of painting portraits of loved ones. Perlis doesn’t like painting that disrespects the picture plane, and where the forms of the painting are not contained evenly.

Sculptor Harold Tovish shows a selection of his work and comments briefly on the materials and the process by which it was made. In the second half of the lecture he addresses the issue of entropy in art, eloquently expressing his profound sorrow about the state of art at the time of the lecture, including what he perceives as a lack of integrity, a lack of morality and a lack of humanity in the work he sees, and ending with a hope that the students in the audience will reverse that trend.

Painter, philosopher, and writer Herb Aach gives a lecture at Skowhegan. Aach explains to the participants his interest in visual perception and how it informs touch and perception, as well as his interest in the history of the colour wheel. Aach explains to the participants that there are receptors of the eyes that make up everything else ranging from primary colours and its relationship to the three receptors of the eyes. Aach also talks about the history of colourfield painting and draws from the philosophies of Richard Gregory as well to further explore how one can look and see more deeply.

Jack Beal offers biographical information relative to his career as a painter in a slide lecture which begins with abstract paintings he did in art school in the mid 1950s, moving into abstractions from nature, and eventually to a naturalistic style. The narrative associated with the paintings is largely descriptive of the subject matter with anecdotes about the circumstances under which which the work was created; titles are not given. He discusses his interest in using mirrors and other devices to explore formal and conceptual issues. Following the slides, Beal speaks of his personal philosophy and of the importance of and need for connections, both within works of art and between artists and the outside world. He also discusses his aspirations to create art which is more accessible to the masses and which will lead to social change. He is outspoken in expressing his opinions of individual artists, art critics and trends and movements.

Gabriel Laderman gives a lecture at Skowhegan showing a series of his paintings, drawings and sculptures. Laderman draws inspiration from the technique of form making hailing from early 15th century Italian painting, and he uses this knowledge to create picture plays that allows Laderman to twist and shape these planes in order to create his composition. Gabriel uses this form of picture making to push back into space in order to develop his ideas. Laderman also draws inspiration from nature which connects him to ideas of the sublime, and he uses these concepts to think about how to expand the nature of his painting practice through creating different kinds of structure. Laderman ends his lecture by engaging in intimate conversation with the participants. Laderman reads some of his writings to the participants which touches upon the role of class and elitism in the art world. He tells the participants that artists might be given time to develop their work and practice by slowing down. He also tells the participants that radical political artists have the right to be figurative artists as well.

Painter Jacob Lawrence, who claims that his work is generally autobiographical, shows examples of his paintings grouped by series (Harlem series, War series, Theater series, American History series, etc.), and talks about developing technical virtuosity and then backing away from it to better serve the content of the painting in this incomplete lecture. Also discussed are the easel program of the Roosevelt administration’s Federal Art Project, applying for fellowships, the speaker’s preference for working directly on a painting rather than from drawings, and illustrations for children’s books on Harriet Tubman and Aesop’s Fables.

Artist Les Levine begins his lecture by describing a conceptual piece that he did at the University of Toronto called Red Tape. This is followed by a presentation of his views on the changing role of art (i.e., there is no good vs. bad art, everything is interesting) in a technological age when all knowledge is accessible to everyone in contrast to a time when there was privileged information. The relationship between the speaker and the audience becomes quite antagonistic.

Roger Majorwicz gives a lecture at Skowhegan talking about his artistic practice. Majorwicz also talks about his experience being a participant at Skowhegan in 1957 and how his time as a student inspired him to embrace sculpture in his work. Majorwicz shows a series of slides of his work from 1957-1967. Majorowicz talks about the influence that Henry Varnum Poor had on him as an artist, and how he influenced Majorowicz to push himself into new mediums. Majorowicz’s time at Skowhegan helped him expand his practice into sculpture, wood carving, bronze, and terracotta alongside his paintings and drawings. 

Brice Marden gives a lecture talking about the history of painting. He shows a series of slides covering different motifs in painting: landscape, still life, portraiture, and narrative paintings. Marden mentions many artists throughout the lecture, spanning different periods and centuries: cubism, fauvism, impressionism, rococo, Baroque, flemish, and renaissance to name a few.

Robert Morris gives a lecture at Skowhegan talking about his painting, drawing, and sculpture practice. Morris engages with a wide range of material including rubber, felt, metal, copper and steel, as well as his own body to create his work. Morris tells the participants that he thinks about his body as a space of documentation to orient an experience beyond words. This allows Morris to create work that can be free and also lead to political actions. Considering himself politically engaged, Morris thinks about the systems of economics that helps him inform this way of thinking. Morris speaks about the importance of collectives that can change bad systems which exist in art through direct political action without preaching. Morris ends his lecture telling the participants that collaborating with others can allow them to draw from their imagination to make their ideas stronger.

Painter Kenneth Noland, working without outline or prepared lecture (which results in a lack of focus and some confusion), fields questions and challenges to and about his philosophy of art, his observations on the status and projected future of art at the time of the lecture, and a general commentary on what art is and isn’t. Many topics are touched on, none in depth.

Al Blaustein gives a lecture at Skowhegan showing a series of his slides which spans drawings, paintings, etchings and sculptures. For Blaustein, it is important to make sure that the total complexity of a painting is strongly unified, and one of the best ways to do this is by making great paintings out of the everyday, through unpretentious, simple means. Blaustein states how everything in his practice was originally limited to only what he saw, but over time, learned how to consciously organize so that he was also aware of other paintings and ideas outside of his vision. Blaustein states how he enjoys the feeling of making something solid which also helps him work with sculpture due to the handling of materials. Finally, Blaustein ends his lecture by talking about the role of drawing. Blaustein states that drawing will always be the most important part of his life, especially after being inspired by his trip to India. It was this trip to India which helped Blaustein think about how drawing can be used as a bridge for molding material in order to make sculptures.

In what appears to be a fragment of a longer lecture, Red Grooms talks about one of his films, explaining his techniques and elements of production, and likening it to painting in several ways. He also offers autobiographical information and shows a 1900 film by George Méliès for the audience.

In one of several lectures at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (additional lectures in 1954, 1970, 1989 and 1996), African American painter Jacob Lawrence presents a chronological slide show of some of his paintings, drawings and book illustrations, commenting on his interest in creating paintings with an economy of form, line, and color; his ongoing involvement with the picture plane; his selection of subject matter based on his experience; his working methods; the leading role ascribed to content in his work; his education (or lack thereof in a formal sense) as an artist; and the WPA, about which he speaks at length. Some of the works are identified by their titles.

Mac Wells gives a lecture at Skowhegan where he shows a series of slides of his paintings ranging from different materials: oils, acrylics, raw canvas, and un-stretched. At the core of Wells’ work is an interest in ideas of exploring force-fields and physics in his painting practice. For Wells, the term force-field is an analogy that helps him think about deep spatial concepts, ideas, gravity, natural phenomena, and ideas of surrealism as well which he tries to have as a motif in many of his paintings. Ultimately, although Wells describes himself as an abstract painter, he chooses to use the language of abstraction to create a visual experience that is rooted in landscape and planetary forms.

Artist and writer Philip Pearlstein gives a lecture at Skowhegan where he shows a series of slides that depict his printmaking, painting, and drawing practice. Pearlstein explains how his practice looks at the theme of figuration while also exploring landscape, portraiture, and still life. Pearlstein paints from life without photography, cultivating inspiration from models. Pearlstein’s aim is to make the camera obsolete. Drawing also plays a huge role in Pearlstein’s practice, helping him build composition for his work. Another element that Pearlstein is concerned with is light, and what light creates in his paintings. Pearlstein also tells the participants of the importance of looking at other artists’ work, because they will learn about their own work through this process and what they do and don’t want to do with their work.

Sculptor Ronald Bladen reads a brief personal statement, and goes on to describe his sculptural approach as including large often precarious works, which make use of geometric (non-organic) shapes and have no color other than black and white. Questions lead to a variety of topics including choice of materials and working methods, and eventually a lengthy discussion of public sculpture and the speaker’s unfavorable view of a recent show of public sculpture in New York City.

Painter Jane Freilicher talks about her education as an artist, including time spent with Hans Hofmann, and her subsequent experience as a non-mainstream artist in the heyday of Abstract Expressionism. This is followed by slides of her landscape, figure and still life works, with commentary mostly confined to the subject matter and its treatment.

Renowned architect, inventor, theorist, writer and designer Buckminster Fuller gives a lecture at Skowhegan. Fuller explores the wide ranging forms of thinking that has informed his interdisciplinary practice ranging from the relationship between the metaphysical and the physical, the history of slavery and colonialism, and the teachings of theory found in physics, economics, and chemistry to name a few. Fuller urges the students to use their minds to explore the metaphysical and physical, and to think in innovative ways on how to regenerate the life around them. Fuller ends his lecture telling the participants that there is no better way for the concept of design revolution–which he is invested in– to be better understood than by artists. 

Self-styled realist painter Al Held lectures briefly on his ideas for making a more complex art in the near future, followed by questions from the participants. He explores the difference between pluralistic and sequential art; the impact of a knowledge of the history of art on the individual artist; and what makes for a desirable art education. He further discusses the significance of size and scale in his own work and that of others, as well as his abandonment (at the time of the lecture) of the use of color, the visual and emotional impact of which interferes with the complex dialogue he is trying to develop. The speaker did not show slides.

Sidney Hurwitz spends the first part of his lecture talking about the writings of Ernst Gombrich, James Johnson Sweeney and Eric Kahler, and their relationship to visual art. Hurwitz then shows a series of slides of his drawings, etchings, woodcuts and paintings. Hurwitz reflects on his time traveling and encourages the participants about how seeing different places can inspire shifts in artists; he uses the example of visiting Germany which allowed him to explore watercolour in his artistic practice. Interested in the person as a model

Lichtenstein shows and talks about slides of his earlier and later sculpture and paintings, as well as the trademark large comic-book style paintings using Benday dots. Many questions are asked, resulting in some excellent primary source material from the artist at a time when he was still very close to the interests and thinking which led him to create them. The first part of the recording is incomplete and many of the questions asked are inaudible.

In this early lecture at the Skowhegan School (he spoke again in 1994), the painter Robert Mangold talks about how a visit to the Carnegie International sparked his interest in becoming a painter and led him away from a career as a commercial artist. He also mentions artists who influenced him, his explorations of non-traditional surfaces, spray painting, and the painting as a wall, with geometric shapes, particularly circles and partial circles, suggesting something beyond the edge of the actual work.

In his second lecture at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (previous lecture 1964), painter James McGarrell shows work dating from 1954 through work in progress, and talks about his interest in going against a prevailing minimalist trend to create paintings which are about complexity on many levels, from subject to formal elements, and how this is reflected in the pieces shown. The lecture is incomplete and marred by numerous unintelligible words and phrases.

Philip Pearlstein gives a lecture talking about his artistic practice which spans drawing, writing, printmaking, and painting. In his paintings, Pearlstein is interested in having a landscape motif that can convey a fully self-explanatory subject, and Pearlstein draws inspiration from action painters to understand this, while staying away from photography due to its inability to give Pearlstein enough information of what he wants to look at. The process of writing is also something that has continued to push Pearlstein’s painting practice over the years, teaching him that an artist must always establish an attitude towards the flat picture plane, and then decide whether to hold it, break it, or work with it. For Pearlstein, this multi-faceted approach to understanding his paintings allows him to approach the picture plane without puncturing it with illusionistic spaces, and to create figures in his compositions that are devoid of compromise and on the brink of abstraction. These risks that Pearlstein takes in his paintings allow him to think about the active compositions and complex figures that inhabit his paintings, while also holding the picture plane accountable. Pearlstein states how he tries to be aware of the tensions that build up between an artist and the work of the past as well as contemporary artists that are making work now. Pearlstein says that it is important for every artist to work with the full knowledge of the history of technical ideas they deal with. When artists build this awareness, it allows them to understand how other artists will view their work, and how they can build their practice alongside the contemporaries of their generation who are pursuing the same related goals, while understanding how their work is similar or different. Pearlstein then states that the degree of an artist’s accomplishment can only be measured directly in these terms. Pearlstein ends his lecture by gently reminding the participants to seize every opportunity as artists, for everything is fleeting, nothing stays the same, nothing is stable, and they will never truly be in control of life around them except their art.

Leonard Bocour talks about the history and ways in which oil pigments, paints and linseed oil is made. Bocour also talks about the reason for paint to be applied to canvas and why canvas is such a successful surface due to its ability to resist moist air and the ultra violet rays from the sun. Bocour gives a demonstration of how many different colors are created from different oil paint pigments. Bocour breaks down each pigment, explaining to the participants that the more coarse the particle is of the pigment, the better stains it has. Bocour illuminates to the participants the wide range of sources that have been used to create pigments, including but not limited too, Indian Madder, ivory tusks and bones of elephants, zinc oxide, and even the liquid created from burning petroleum. Bocour also reflects on the paintings of the old masters, indicating that one of the reasons why they have been so successful is because painters of the past would grind their pigments by hand. Bocour ends the lecture by telling participants to master their craft, because craft is the basis of art. If the participants become good craftsmen, art will follow.

Lennart Anderson gives a lengthy lecture talking about the life and work of the artist Edgar Degas. Anderson uses the influence of Degas to explain to the participants how his source of inspiration as an artist has consistently come from other places, and goes on to talk about how Degas inspired his own painting practice. Anderson goes on to explain how Degas too was an artist who drew on different sources to create his own oeuvre. Anderson then gradually starts talking about his own artistic practice which spans drawing and painting as well. Anderson’s own work includes a combination of portraiture, landscape, and still life painting, also working in both large and small scale canvases and paper. Anderson ends his lecture by urging the participants to try their best to show their work in a global center for contemporary art like New York.

Composer John Cage, choreographer Merce Cunningham and one unnamed individual perform about forty minutes of a “happening,” where each performer is operating independently of the others and within his own non-obstructive sphere. This is followed by a question and answer period mostly dominated by Merce Cunningham. The topics include a discussion of the series of exercises just done on stage, to creativity in dance given the limited range of movements the body can perform, to the problems with the traditional notion of theater as a physical plant, to music and beat in creating dances, to the concepts of freedom and improvisation within choreography. John Cage’s comments tend more to the philosophical as he talks about sound, pattern and syncopation, the relationship of structured and unstructured work, and the capacity of art to open and stretch the way an audience sees.

Sidney Hurwitz gives a lecture talking about the current moment of contemporary art examining a wide range of movements and artists. Hurtwiz tells the participants that the greatest gamble an artist can take is presenting himself as unequivocally serious for they risk making a fool of themselves. Hurwitz then starts talking about his artistic practice, which spans watercolour, painting, and printmaking. Some of the ideas that Hurwitz is interested in are the relationships between moving figures, space, and landscape. Hurwitz is also interested in the slowness that his watercolours in particular provide him, and he continues to be able to enjoy the freedom of just being able to work on one watercolour at a time without having to correct anything. Hurwitz also states how water-colour prevents him from going beyond a certain scale, and these restrictions continue to prove to be an enjoyable challenge for him. Hurwitz ends his lecture by telling the participants to always draw from the models and life around them. Once they obtain deep practice with this, they will be trained to always draw fruitfully from their imagination. 

Alex gives a lecture of his work talking about his paintings, drawings, collages, cutouts and paper collages. Katz explores a wide range of subject matter in his work including portraiture, figuration, landscape, and abstract motifs. In his cutouts, Katz employs materials such as masonite, brass, board and aluminum. Katz states how a good idea is also very important for him, usually representing about 15 percent of the art work he makes. Katz then begins to talk more specifically about his paintings, stating how he is interested in making large-scale lyrical paintings that are illusionistic and composed of a physical matter that seeks to always be complete. Katz also states how his paintings are a space that he strives to be more classical than romantic. Having this balance allows Katz to make sure that he is never developing one thing excessively, and also allows him to make sure his art is conscious and not obsessive. 

Walter Murch gives a lecture talking about his painting and drawing practice by showing a series of slides. Murch’s work is rooted in still life, and he works from a wide range of different materials; such as rice paper, oil paint, lead, varnish, and charcoal. Murch draws influence from various forms of painters throughout art history, ranging from impressionism and cubism, to abstract expressionism and the renaissance which help him construct his still life paintings and drawings. Murch also talks about how paintings can constantly create new problems for artists and how this allows artists to take on the responsibility of always solving new problems for themselves in their work. Murch ends his lecture telling the participants the importance they must have to always try and title their works, because it will allow them to create locations for those works.

Painter Ad Reinhardt talks about the semantics of the art world and challenges his audience with his ideas and questions about what art is and what an artist does.

Tony Smith talks about his confinement during childhood due to tuberculosis and how this influenced his later ideas as an architect, contrasting the human scale of European walled cities to the difficulties of producing something similar in American cities which are defined by open space and a lack of relationships between buildings. One piece of the artist’s sculpture, Amaryllis, which was displayed in a show at the Whitney is talked about in some depth.

Artist Henry Varnum Poor delivers an unstructured talk about a variety of topics including pitfalls in lecture-giving; the contemporary art situation and how the School relates to it; the role of the School’s faculty in relation to the participants and the importance of being open to one’s own fresh vision and style. This is followed by slides of the speaker’s work, including paintings, drawings, pottery and ceramics, and architecture, and accompanied by minimal commentary. The questions at the end draw the artist into his autobiography. The sound quality at the end of the lecture is badly degraded.

Artist Isabel Bishop gives a lecture at Skowhegan in which she talks about her prolific painting practice. She engages in a lengthy, intimate conversation with the participants, urging them to always be critics in order for them to realize what they think is considered valid in today’s art. Bishop further asks the participants where they think it is possible to find new forms of judgment of invalidity. She tells artists they need to find new ways of conceptualization in their thinking in order to resist nostalgia and to find ways to stay alive.

Painter Kenneth Callahan speaks about three categories of artists: the artist who observes and reports; the more analytical artist; and the superior artists whose search for a personal identity as expressed through his art never ends. He goes on to differentiate between expressive and constructed art and the application of one’s philosophy and a rich personal experience to one’s art. The recording is not complete.

Artist Sidney Hurwitz lectures on public art in general and the history and technique of mosaics in particular at an early lecture at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.

Showing slides of work by a broad selection of artists representing several contemporary movements, and working with a statement by Virgil Thomson that instead of quality following the new, the new will follow quality, painter Gabriel Laderman lectures on the avant-garde and on sources of quality and inspiration available to the artist.

In a very short lecture, painter Richard Lindner presents his view of the art world, declaring everyone an artist, defining success as making money, and questioning what art is. He also discusses various movements (Pop, Op) as being exclusively American commodities and others as being derivative, with passing reference to orientation of the art world.

Painter Anne Poor lectures on what inspires an individual to create art and what teachers have to contribute to that process, based on her own search to produce a “modern” art. The slides she shows are an eclectic collection of what she was able to gather on short notice. They include some very early work from Italy and Greece, most notably portraits of children. In general the commentary on the slides is of a descriptive nature with some autobiographical anecdotes. Later slides show work done by the artist in Russia during a trip there the year prior to the lecture, with some cultural information included. The final portion of the talk includes slides of a broad spectrum of drawings and paintings borrowed from Colby College which the speaker thought might be of general interest; most of these are identified at best with the name of the artist.

Larry Rivers gives a lecture at Skowhegan talking about his interdisciplinary practice which spans printmaking, sculpture, drawing and painting practice. Rivers incorporates many different mediums in his work including plexiglass, wood, neon, light, and metal to name a few. Although Rivers’ work is rooted in figurative painting, Rivers states how all aspects of work have been influenced by understanding the psychological aspects of the individual. drawing from personal experiences and observing the world around him. Other core themes that have influenced Rivers oeuvre include his travels, autobiographical narratives, political histories, and finding humour in the everyday. Rivers turns to reflecting on the history of old master paintings, especially the work of Gericault as a way to find inspiration to explore his complex ideas and execute his work. 

James Rosati gives a lecture at Skowhegan talking to the participants about how to create a strong identity for themselves as an artist. Rosati urges the participants to understand the current moment of history that they find themselves in; in particular the rise of the computer and the atomic age. Rosati says that it’s important for artists to be able to be sensitive enough to create work that projects beyond the world around them, and to get away from the immediacy of their everyday life and the dangers of nostalgia that can trap them. Rosati states that when artists are able to create this kind of projection for themselves, life will start to clarify for them and they will always be growing by constantly challenging themselves. Rosati draws from various moments in art history both in the east as well as the west, and also mentions many artists throughout history to help illustrate his points.

Painter Paul Georges presents a lecture on his general philosophy and beliefs about art and his suggestions for would-be artists.

Painter Philip Pearlstein shows slides of his paintings and talks about his working method. This is followed by a discussion of issues in painting, such as life drawing, perspective, the picture plane, and illusion, accompanied by an assortment of slides from various periods, cultures and artists. The lecture is not complete, beginning with the lecture in progress and ending before it is finished.

In this lecture Willard Cummings, one of the co-founders of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, gives an overview of fresco and mosaics, history, materials and techniques, accompanied by slides. He also touches briefly on the fresco in the Skowhegan curriculum, beginning with a demonstration by Henry Poor in the first year of the school (1946), and mentions the South Solon Meeting House fresco project.

Alex Katz gives a lecture at Skowhegan talking about his artistic practice. Particularly focusing on his paintings, Katz talks about how the subject matter is something in his paintings that creates a big stimulation for him, and tells the participants how the subject matter should always be treated in this way; as an important vehicle for creating simulations. However, Katz states subject matter shouldn’t be the most interesting factor in the painting, and it has nothing to do with content or form. For Katz, subject matter can also function as paint, light, or space. Katz ends his lecture by engaging in a lively conversation with participants where they discuss everything from various movements throughout art history and artists that have inspired Katz over the years, as well as his experience living and working as an artist in New York City.

This recording is of the question and answer period which follows a slide presentation by sculptor Marisol Escobar at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. The artist, for whom this was a first-ever public speaking appearance, offers brief answers to questions from the audience of artists and art students about her art training, materials, themes and artistic development.

William Zorach gives a lecture talking about his sculptural practice and the importance sculpture holds for him as a way to expand form. For Zorach, being aware of the limitations of his own knowledge has always been a guiding force in his practice, forcing him to go further beyond these limitations and develop a spiritual relationship with his art. Building this spiritual relationship allows Zorach to go deeper into his subconscious and reveals what is truly resonant and powerful in art by studying the earliest arts in order to learn how to make art in the current moment. Another form of spiritual relationship building that Zorach has cultivated with his art practice is going back to nature, due to nature’s ability to be infinite in its variety. Zorach also speaks intimately with the participants, explaining to them the way art functions in his life. For Zorach, there are two types of art that he sees; the art of the temple and sanctuary, and the art of the circus and theater. Zorach uses this binary to comment on the current state of contemporary art, saying how it has become more about show business, publicity, playing up to crowds, and promotion. Zorach is critical of this kind of art world because it functions not on real dedicated sincerity and integrity of eternal principles but instead is based upon attracting and making the public feel inferior. Zorach continues speaking intimately to the participants, warning them that if they don’t have any knowledge of what is truly quality in art, then it will be easy to consistently destroy the very essence and good that they will create. Zorach says that one of the best ways to build this knowledge is to learn how to select and edit their work; which will also help them realize that true quality in art is a matter of feeling. Another way for the participants to build more knowledge of their art is to never work on someone else’s copyright or patent, but to always find their own. Zorach ends his lecture by encouraging the participants to always cultivate a love for art, keep developing their skill sets, and to keep believing in themselves. If they believe in themselves and find others who believe in them, it will nurture a quality of humility, integrity, and love for not only themselves but everyone around them. It is this nurturing that leads to a strength that allows artists to accomplish anything, build healthy relationships, and contribute to making the world better.

Skowhegan founder Willard Cummings gives an extensive history of the school. Cummings talks about the origins of the school, early buildings, faculty and participants, and the work done at Skowhegan by participants, including the frescoes in the South Solon Meeting House.

Zubel Kachadoorian gives a lecture talking about his interdisciplinary practice which spans painting, sculpture, drawing, charcoal, pencil, and egg tempera. Kachadoorian explains how he worked for a number of years as a mason which in particular shaped his artistic practice as a sculptor. For Kachadoorian, at the core of his practice is a desire to engage with the human scale in order to be able to tap into his ideas. Kachadoorian ends his lecture urging participants to always strive to go to a place in their work that may not be familiar, or a place where they may not initially feel wanted, because that is where true growth can flourish for them as artists.

In his fourth lecture at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (previous lectures in 1960, 1961 and 1963), Alex Katz comments on the importance of following one’s instincts with regard to pursuing art; the decision an artist must make between making art characterized by timeliness versus timelessness; and, in regard to the artist/dealer relationship, the need for the artist to control his own aesthetic rather than having it dictated to him by the market. Katz discusses his personal preferences vis a vis types of art and how those preferences have changed over time; addresses his perception of the differences between European and American art; and speaks at length about doing stage sets, particularly his work for Paul Taylor’s dance company. No slides were shown in conjunction with this lecture.

James Kearns gives a lecture at Skowhegan talking about his artistic practice which is rooted in an exploration in three dimensional form, which Kearns seeks to execute through painting and sculpture. For Kearns, abstract painting has also always been important to his thinking, specifically with the remnants it has had with figuration, whether that figuration is animals, minerals, or mechanical formulations. Kearns also questions the importance of adjusting the formal elements of his work; whether it is the pigment, line, colour, texture, form, or space; in order to better understand how to give his work multidimensional personalities. Kearns goes further on his work, commenting on how this re-adjustment of formal elements, and ultimately the re-adjustment of the representation of his work allows his paintings to demand that they represent something, and demand that his work have titles that are also intense. Kearns ends his lecture stating that the feeling of demanding intensity he seeks to inject in his work is a feeling that he can tap into being at Skowhegan as well.