name that author...
"The painter is concerned with representing solely what can be seen. These points, if they are joined one to the other in a row, will form a line. With us a line is a figure whose length can be divided but whose width is so fine that it cannot be split. Some lines are called straight, others curved. A straight line is drawn directly from one point to another as an extended point. The curved line is not drawn straight from one point to another, but rather looks a drawn bow. More lines, like threads woven together in a cloth, make a plane."

- sally mckay 11-25-2003 5:15 am

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back to sally mckay and lorna mills

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Kandinsky's Concerning the Spiritual in Art is full of this kind of stuff, but I don't actually know.
- tom moody 11-25-2003 6:29 am

too recent
- sally mckay 11-25-2003 7:43 am

Alberti?
- tom moody 11-25-2003 7:46 am

dude! you got it. Leon Battista Alberti, On Painting(15th century). I picked it up recently and its really pretty great reading (good in the bathroom). Some more:

It seems obvious to me that colours take their variations from light, because all colours put in the shade appear different from what they are in the light. Shade makes colour dark; light, where it strikes, makes colour bright. The philosophers say that nothing can be seen which is not illuminated and coloured. Therefore they assert that there is a close relationship between light and colour in making each other visible.

and...
An istoria is praised in Rome in which Meleager, a dead man, weighs down those who carry him. In every one of his members he appears completely dead -- everything hangs, hands, fingers and head; everything falls heavily. Anyone who tries to express a dead body -- which is certainly most difficult -- will be a good painter, if he knows how to make each member of a body flaccid. ... The members of the dead should be dead to the very nails; of live persons every member should be alive in the smallest part.

and...
In painting open yourself up to whoever comes and hear everyone. The work of the painter attempts to be pleasing to the multitude; therefore do not disdain the judgement and views of the multitude when it is possible to satisfy their opinions.

- sally mckay 11-25-2003 8:24 am

Damn. I was sure it was John Berger's "Ways of Seeing".
- Joester (guest) 11-25-2003 9:26 am

I thought it was the macgys' "going for a walk with a line."
- bill 11-25-2003 5:34 pm

"going for a walk with a line"

I'd never of heard of that one. I guess the title is from a Paul Klee quote? trippy!
- sally mckay 11-26-2003 7:41 am

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