Noticing il - Giorgio Morandi, artist

I am working on a book about the Getty Center (Los Angeles) Central Garden, which was designed by artist Robert Irwin. The book is a conversation between Irwin and essayist Lawrence Weschler, about the art and artistry of the gardens. As they move about the space, they talk about the material components, but also about the philosophy and practice of making art. Irwin comments at one point on the importance of surface, edge, and color in a painting, and how everything touches everything else. Weschler mentions the painter and printmaker Giorgio Morandi (1890–1964), an artist I had not heard of, as a good example of this: the edges of things, what happens when two things come together. Irwin enthusiastically agrees, saying,

That is exactly why Morandi was such a great painter. There isn't a single wasted motion, every brushstroke counted for something. Man, what he did with edges is a lesson. He neutralized subject by using the same mundane still life over and over—that array of jars and bottles and vases—but while the subject didn't change, each painting was a whole new adventure in seeing. Everything's brought out, everything understood.
 And the point is that that's finally what a painting is. I mean, the subjects and all that are fine, but finally, a painting is a painting. And if you don't know something about painting, if you don't understanding something about the tools you're using and know how to make them work for you, and I mean really work for you, well then, they'll all work against you.

This, of course,  got me curious about Morandi, and . . . sure enough: still lifes—the same old jars and bottles and vases, over and over again. I guess this might count as obsessive art. But it's also beautiful—even just here on my computer screen. Now I long to go see an exhibition of Morandi's work in person. Because as Irwin also remarks, in reproduction, you only get a vague idea of the edges; it's in the painting itself that the edges come alive.

So, here are a few of his still lifes. Intimate, sensuous, careful exercises in seeing. (Click on the images to see large on black.)