Richard Haas, Resident Artist Lecture 1984

Richard Haas gives a lecture talking about his painting practice which he sees as an interface between art and architecture. Haas is interested in working in trompe-l’oeil and how this has allowed him to access different movements in art history. Haas states how the Russia art movement is similar to the graffiti movement in New York. Haas is interested in how the decorative and locational/structural are all things that are considered by painters and sculptors in the Egyptian period. Haas also talks about the Greek period, and shifts into reflecting on the history of sculpture in the romanesque and gothic periods, drawing from architecture and churches. Haas then goes on to talk about the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas; the influence of Frank Gehry, cubism, and modernism in his work; and the ways in which public art and mural art are seen as tied to propaganda because they have a message which is tied to communism and socialism. All of these ideas influence Haas. He relates them back to his own work, making connections with the landscape and the figure, painting large collages. exploring lyrical abstraction, working with the grid, and spending time with the history of textiles, interior spaces, and outdoor installation. Haas ends his lecture by telling the participants that they have to give up control as an artist in order to expand the scale of what they wish to do.