Morandi's Legacy: Influences on British Art

MORA DI'S LEGACY Influences on ritish Art Paul Coldwell Es t o rick C o ll ec ti o n o f M o d e r n It ali an A rt ...

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MORA

DI'S LEGACY Influences on ritish Art

Paul Coldwell

Es t o rick C o ll ec ti o n o f M o d e r n It ali an A rt Philip Wi l son Pu b li shers

Acknowledge me nts

Published on th e OC(',l
O ur t.hanks arC'- owed to lh l' following individuals and institutions for l'hC'ir

or this exhibition:

J2 J.'ll ll,'r y-2 5 Man 'h ?OO(,

muc h ~ app rcda t cd h t~ lp in th e rea lisa ti on

Abhot H"II 'In ( ;a lkry

Accad t- mia C<:rrara, Bcrg.uno (Maria C r i~ti na Hodeschini , Clalldi o G,unha );

K"n ,J,,J

Arls Co un cil Co II ~ction , Londo n (jill ConM,m t ine, Ann Jones , ~h ";"nn e

rUllloria LA 9 5A L

l'vlulvc)'); Tho Br it ish Muse um , Lo ndon (Anto n), Gri ffiths, Jani ce Re,ding);

Buro Anthon), Cr.lgg (jo hn MoCo l'mac k); Gaga sian Galle ry (Lb. Ca rl , on);

5 April- IS Jun e ?()f)6

Kc·ll.!c',)'ard, Cambrr dge ( Michae l Har ri..
I w>rick Collec tion o f Modern Italian Ar t

.\1 oranJi, Bo logna (P(' tn vVeif" rmai r, C laudio Poppi, Giu si Vecchi); N at ional

39a Canonbur)' Syu are

Muse urn, & Ga lleries OfW,1Ic-s, Ca rdilf (Oli" or Fain'lough , Tim Eg,lIl. Kay

Kay.s); Ndl-j{.mal Musc-ums Liverpool. Walker Art Ga llt:ry (JuLian Tr('uhcrz,

Lond()n "'1 1 ') .'\ l\.,"

Godfrey Burke, Nathan I't'nJlchury); Sco tt ish ~1J;Jliun,ll Galle ry of .\\( .tlcrn Art, /-.;...:: hihi tio l1 curatcd by Pau l Cold" l'1I

I-Jinburgh (PatTic k Elliot t, Jan ir,' Slat er, Shona COrlleT); lillierv.i it Spf\ (1'.",'-' Maram otl i).

Ex.hibition orgalli~l ·d b), thl' [ ::,lOr;ck Colh -("( iol)

Roberta Cremon('in i

C h,'rks 1\00 th-C1ihhorn, Cristina Colo mar; l" n)' Cragg, Mi cha e l Craig-Martin,

Chris to ph" .. ,".don,.,

i,"'''on), d 'Olb·, J.IIl"'S El lio ll, GerarJ Fagg ionato, Geo rgia Georgalla." D.,·id

Stephan i<, Pickford

Huc kn!}, Anthony I [owe ll , C hristopher Le Brun, Marco Livingmo no, Laura M attioli Rossi, Renata Miracc:o , P,lUla Rcgu, H ester Russel l Grant, Robert

I·i.., t puloli ' hl'<1 in 2006 oj"

Scot t, Peter Stickland, Richard Thomas, Duccio TrnmbJduri, Rachel

Phili p Wilson PuJ,Ii., 11I'r,

Whiteread, Ll",dil' Waddington, Paul Winst.ml ey.

109 nr),sd.k Stn :vt The Ti mbe r Yard

And for org.-mi~i ng Govern ment Indemnity: Gregory

London N I 6ND

McD",,"I,J, MLA

•

Di"lribllt('o throughout the world (l·"d uding 'orth America) by LB.· r.lU ris & Co. Ltd 6 ~alern Ro,}(I , Lond on W 2 4BU

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lv1.\xynr

Arts & Humanities

Research Council

Copyright Credits

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Oantzig; pp . 49, :) 1 '( ':' ,\ng\·la Vnl'l"Jl 'l. llInt 2006. All right.-; r('sc rven, OACS ;

!'Ir'wYork , NY 100 10

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.c', Estate or William

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18 phuto

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rrontispie< " and fig, 1,2,3,4,5 ,6, R, 9,10, I j ~ Paull'"ld". ,II 200 h; 1'. 67 ,

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fig. 1+ (.-; I stall' of the an i,t ?006; p. 71

©

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worL... ',( , of the .1rt i.... t 10U6. I:ve r) d rart has ~Jl'I'n made to !-rae,' th e co pyri!!llt

a l'l'lrieva l .,~:' t(' m o r I r;,m'''mitl(;d ill J.n) form

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of th ~ ptlbli . . . !J C' r.

D"signed by C,m ,lilll" ,ond Rog,' r Ilillior, The O ld rh'rri Gr.ph.i c De, i;!n Prin tl·d ,llld

bound

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Italy.

f)f til\' materi.ll in thi s c"n;.Jogl1(,. Th e L... lorick COll n'l.i on

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apo l o~i" l' ~

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Contents

Foreword 7

WAITING ROOMS Victor Willing 31

Preface 8

Paul Winstanley 33

MORANDI'S LEGACY

MEASURED SPACES AND

Influences on British Art

PASSING TIME

From London to Bologna 9

Euan Uglow 36

Morandi in Britain 10

Rachel Whiteread 38

TOWARDS ABSTRACTION

LOST AND FOUND

Ben Nicholson 14

Patrick Caulfield 41

Christopher Le Brun 17

Theatre of Mistakes 44

THE PERSONAL ARCHIVE

Return to London

Michae l Craig-Martin 19

(P0

5

t 5 C rip t) 46

William Scott 22

Notes 47

THE STUDIO AS A LABORATORY OF THOUGHT

S e lee t Bib Ii 0 9 rap h y 48

Tony Cragg 24

THE CAT A LOG U E 49

THE LAN G U AGE' 0 F LIN E

David Hac kney 27

Paul Coldwell 29

List of Works 78

5

Foreword

I lo ve Morandi because, even throuBh th e undeniable and Breat filter of his equilibrium, measure and 'ton e', lfind him rich, scronB and interested in the tensions of the mind and the obscurity of the senses; a participant in - and sometimes aforerunner of-some of thefundamental modern experiences.

Francesco Arcangeli

That Morandi's work strikes a particular chord with the

Thi s exhibition would have not come to fruition

British sensibility is no mere suppositio n , and the specific

without the dedication of many peo ple, and we would

nature of this appeal has often been a so urce of inte rest.

fir stly like to thank Paul Coldwell for pro posing thi s show

Perhaps it is the peculiarly cool, muted quality of the

and for working closely with us at every stage. We are

light in Morandi's works - so far removed from the hot,

naturally indebted to all lenders, both private and publi c ,

vibrant colours of the Mediterranean - that the British

who have generously agreed to lend their works. We would

eye respond s to. Or perhaps it is the pr incipl e of

also like to thank Christopher Adams and all the staff at the

understatem ent and reserve that mark his works, not

Estoriek Coll ection , as well as Hannah Neale and the staff

trumpeting their innovate, radical qualities, that the Briti sh

of Abbot Hall , for their hard work and commitment to the

find especiall y sy mpathetic.

proj ect.

This intriguing sense of connection has made the

Robe rta Cremoncini

present exhibition a particularly fa Sci nating and rewarding

Director, Estorick Collection

one to wo rk on with Professor Paul Coldwell who, through hi s co nsidered selection of artists and his

Edward King

illuminating text, has finally succeeded in c haracterising

Director, Abbot Hall Art Gallery

and bringing into sharper focu s this previously undefined attraction .

October 2005

'J

Preface

The intentions in this book and the exhibition it

have been pos sible without the sustained support,

accompanies are various. On one level it seeks to set up

knowledge and enthusiasm o f Roberta Cremoncini,

conversations betwt:en the work of Morandi and a number

Director of the Estorick Collection, and her colleague

of contemporary British artists, and through this to

Chris Adams. It has been a real pkasure to work with

explore and open up the currency of ideas within

them, and an invaluable experience. I would also like to

Morandi 's work, suggesting connections that may be

thank Edward King at Abbot Hall for collaborating in

productive in viewing both his work and that of these

staging the exhibition there and Giusi Vecchi at the Museo

artists. Th e objective is also to propose that there are

Morandi in Bologna for her help and advice. I would like

particular qualities, both in the work and the man, that

to express my sincere thanks to the artists Christopher Le

have led to a special relationship between Morandi's

Brun, Tony Cragg, Michael Craig-Martin, Anthony

oeuvre and the British public.

Howell, Paula Rego, Peter Stickland, Daphne Todd and

It is impo rtant to make ell-ar from the outset that this

Paul Winstanley and the late Patrick Caulfield, as well as

is not an ex hibition concerned with showing the direct

the curators Fiona Bradley and Patrick Elliott, all of who m

influence of Morandi on these contemporary artists. To

kindly agreed to let me interview them as part of the

begin with, while some of them would point to Morandi as

research . I am indebted to Anthony Rudolf for his help and

being an influence at certain points in their lives, for others

advice in editing the final text for the catalogue and to

the relationship is tangential. Any influence of Morandi on

Charlotte Hodes, who has supported and encouraged me

these artists has to be seen against the myriad events,

throughout

encounters and personal circumstances that form the soup

acknowledge the support of the Arts & Humanities

out of which an artist's language emerges. I have selected

Research Council (AHRC) in the form of a Small Grant in

these artists for the ways in which their practice can be

the Creative and Performing Arts. I would also like to

s('en to intersect with ideas that I perceive to be

thank Leora Brook who assisted in the initial research.

fundamental to Morandi's art; this practi ce points to a rich

Finally, I would like to thank all the individuals and

legacy. It is a personal selection, made from my standpoint

institutions that have so ge nerously agreed to lend works.

as an artist, living in London , educated and now teaching

The research for this exhibition is a contribution towards

within the British art education system.

the International Centre for Fine Art Research at the

To this end, I have juxtaposed works by Morandi with

th e

whole

project.

I would

like

to

University of the Arts London.

a key work, or works, by these artists. The intention is to pick out particular threads of connectivity. Since Morandi

Paul Coldwell

is so often referred to as an artist's artist, I have

October 2005

interviewed a number of the artists or their acquaintances as part of the

r{"~earch

for this exhibition, and have

included their words when appropriate. This exhibition has had a long gestation and would not

8

MORANDI'S LEGACY

MORANDI ' S

From London to 8010gna

LEGACY

There are some artists who are so inextricably linked to a particular place that they become one in the mind: Cezann e with Mount Saint- Victoire, Gauguin with Tahiti,

Influences on

Whistler with the fog of London. Bologna has become synonymous with its most famous son, Giorgio Morandi.

British Art

But Morandi didn't paint Bologna any more than Mondrian sat down to paint New York . And yet 'while Mondrian's Boogie Woo8 ie conjures a vision of New York with its soundtrack of jazz, visualised through abstraction

Artists show through their strange ways of life, their

and the grid, Morandi - with his arrangem ents of bottles

physiologies, the processes they go through, they

and

show us something about our rough generalised

reconstructing the medieval city of Bologna.

bric-a-brac -

seems on every canvas to

be

pictures of realities, they show us something specific, and a ncw way of seeing. And one can imagine that

An initial association one could make with the

the world would be a much poorer place without his

paintings is that they are walled towns. The assorted

[Morandi's] work ... And the concentration of

bottles and jars are huddled together, purposely

decision -mak.ing that goes into any sort of picture

placed, bounded and enclosed: you read the forms

making, it is very rare in our culture that you'll find

both individually and as a whole. Sarah Jackson )

something of such intensity, in its information gathering or in its resolution of form, as in Morandi. Tony Cragg'

Bologna is a city defined by two architectural features first, the towers that mark out the skyline, too tall, rising vertically from street level for a purpose long ago

Shortly after the opening of the Morandi exhibition

forgotten, and second, the endless colonnades. it is

at the Royal Academy, David Hockney was enthusing to me about the impact the exhibition had had on him, praising the painterly vigour, the concentration of vision, the austere sensuality of these luminous stilllifes ... Richard Denvir'

Fig . 1. View

01Bologno

MORANDI'S LEGACY

possible to cri ss- cross this city protected fro m the heat of

Morandi in Britain

the midday sun or ke pt dry from the frequent shower s. In this way, it is an artificial environm ent where the ve rtica l

Whil e Morandi

form s of the towers have a counterpoint in the hori zo ntal

popularity has been growing steadily here since the 19505.

colonnades, measuring out the city in units of column and

He was first featured in the 1950 Arts Council exhibition

shadow.

Modern Italian Arc at the Tate Gallery which focu sed o n the

ne ver actually

visited

Britain , hi s

The city emanates from its centre, red brick and

period hetween 1910-30, and in particular the birth of

painted stucco, giving it the name la rossa - 'the red one'

Futuri sm , the Metaphy sica l school and 'a new cl.lssicism'.

(whi c h also refers to its fifty years o f communist

Morandi , whilst Sl'l'n withjn the Metaphysica l school along

gove rnment). Bologna lays claim to the first university in

with de Chiri co and Carra, is presented as an artist who is

Italy, a centre fo r medicine where the fir st human

separate and above any categori satio n. In the introd uction

dissection was conducted. The architecture, the colours of

to the ex hibition by Pao lo d ' Ancona, Morandi is spoken of

the city, the university, its politics: these cling to Morandi

with an almost religious dl'votion:

like the smell of old tobacco - his work distils this s('nse of place and records the time passing in familiar company. It's carly even ing; I have fl own in from London to be in

We should like to reaffirm o ur belief that Morandi is a master, who will remain untouched by the

Bologna and to make a trip to Grizzana, the place where

Auctuatio ns of taste, for his art has nothing of the

Morandi painted hi s lan ds capes during the summ er

imm ed iate and day-to-day, but is tim e less. It is born

months in ord er to escape the heat of the city. I dine alone

of renunci ati on , as ascl'tic as the man himself, but at

in a small street near the market off the main square. There

the same tim e it is so sensitive and delicate that we

is an intensity to being alone in an unfamiliar city that can

stand in awe before his work:

be like revery. Maybe this is a good starting point to consider Morandi and his relationship to themes within

The first major solo show of his work in Britain was four

British art. It is, appropriate ly enough, a solitary

years later at Burlington House in 1954 in an ex hibition

engage ment ; his work demands a si ngular commitm ent.

curated by Vital e Bl och , where once again Morandi is

Fig. 2, Colonnade~. Bologna

10

FIg 3, Colonnodes, Bologna

MORANDI ' S LEGACY

projected as a moral figure, o ne slightl y removed and

prints. Simon Morl ey com m ented that 'Giorgio Morandi's

beyond reproach: ' In opposition to th e inco herence, em pty

is a modest art bo th in size and su bject but despite thi ~ it

\mrds and shall ow rhetoric of artists , as well as amate urs

turns out seemingly monumen tal.' " Sue Hubbard agreed,

of art, GiorgiO Morandi sets up his reserve, hi s discretion,

saying: 'These little known works are real gems, and mus t

and his sil ence."

surely place Morandi among the ranks of th e world's grea t

And! whil e one could read this from a view point of

etchers.' 10

Ita lian cultural propaganda, the writer John Berger echoes

Th e Tate ex hi bition, curated by Jennifer Mund y,

th e sentime nt , sugges ting that this view was indeed widely

contained an illuminating essay by Mundy he r se lf, draw ing

acce pted: ' And in an age in which a pl"e te ntiou s

on orig inal research into Morandi's working m e thod and

internationalism o f style encourages every artist to feel

an appraisal by th e artist Chri stopher Le Brun , re inforcing

that he is a potential world figure, such quie t , paroc hial

the idea that here was an ar tist who spoke directl y to oth er

humility as Morandi is rare and di gnified.' 6

artists. II

Follow in g Morandi's death in 1964, the Scottish

In 1998, th e Estorick Collection ('s t ahli shed its

\IationaJ GaUery of Modern Art in Edinburgh staged an

permanent home in Highbury, London, and has regu larly

ex hih ition of hi s work from th e per sonal collection of

shown no t only its own substantial holdings o f Morandi's

Luigi Magnani, a close friend fo r twenty years. This was

prints an d drawings, but has also, through co llaborations,

foll owed by the Arts Council ex hibitio n in 1970, which

presented key works in an ongoing programm e. Gioraio

included paintings , watereolours and e tchings. It was

Morandi : Th e Coliectors' Eye o f 2001 (curated by Rober ta

accompanied by a substanti al catal ogue reproducing many

Cre m oncini) ca ll ed on loans from th e art ist and coll ector

of th l' paintings in colour and with an introduction by

Roberto Longhi and r an parall el with an ex hibition of

Andrew Forge, projecting Morandi to an ever-widening

Morandi's work at Tate Modern. Again th e artist's rcslJonse

audi ence. The exhibition was both a po pular and critical

\vas ex plored in essays for the Estorick catalogu e by the

with reviews expressing a genui ne aH'C'ction from

painter Merlin James and mysel r, 12 whil e Tate drew upon

a wide range of critics. Terence Mullaly re marked: 'Seldom

contributi o n s by a number of contempora ry artists

in all art has there been so perfect a uni on of analysis and

including H annah Collins and Cornelia Parker. Once

poe tr~' as in the work o f Morandi' ,7 w hil e Russell Taylor

again, these exhibitions drew enthusiastic res ponses from a

cnthused: ' Morandi's show at the Roya l Academ y ... is an

ra nge of diver se cr itical positions:

SlI CCCSS ,

ideal rallying point fo r sur vivi ng be lievers in quality.'" Since then, exhibitions in Britain o f Morandi 's work haH'

been

regular

and

fr equ e nt,

with

the

artist

In th e ir SimpliCity, hi s painting stands apart fro m twenti eth- century art which is, no doubt, th eir charm

prominently featured in th e

1989 Royal Academy

1 the 20th

Cen wIJ and the Tate's On

veneration ... like the figures, mills and factories of

C/OIYic (,round, while the c'x hibiti on of his etchings at th e,

L S Lowry, his Mancunian contemporary, Morandi's

Tate in 1991 provided a rare opportunity to see a

images are, over the years, slow in th eir changing and

substantial body of his graphic work. Thi s exhibi ti on ,

immediately recognisable - a reassurin g factor to the

tucked away in th e basement at Millbank , attracted

in vestor and the unce rtain connoisseur.

ex hi bi,tion Italian Art

cnthusiastic reviews and attention rare for a show of

and the source of such mystery as to engender

Brian Sewell "

1I

MORANDI'S

~EGACY

It is hard to imagine anyone not feeling better for

removal of decoration as being a distraction from pure

having experienced his art. The purity of intention

thought, form and space, is still a defining presence in

and effect gives his work a singular humility and

Britain. To this end, it is casy to see how Morandi, an Italian

moral authority.

artist with no trace of catholic saints or madonnas, his John McEwen"

bottles stripped to their fundamental forms , colour muted and bleached, and a life style that places study above

In my view this affection for Morandi in Britain differs

pleasure, should be accepted as an appropriate model of a

from

contemporary master.

the

seemingly

insatiable

appetite

for

the

Impressionists, representing a sense of yearning for

Morandi, through his art, brings a connection with

another place, less complicated, that is warm, picturesque,

tradition, proposing a continuum rather than a fracture. In

vibrant and charged with a promise of sexual and other

his work the nineteenth century moves effortlessly into the

fr eedoms. In Morandi, the British see something more akin

twentieth, reassuring in a country like Britain whe re the

to a reflcction. From thesc shores, he can be regarded as

past often appears to be more valued than the future.

the lonely Protestant, one who has intellectually stripped

Waldemar Januszczak took up this point when reviewing

down experience to its basics and represents a world of

the exhibition of his etchings at the Tate:

dignified simplicity. This suggestion concurs with the view of Patrick Reyntiens who, in an essay of 1966, stre~ses the

Morandi is one of the more mysterious presences in

importance of the Quaker movement in setting a moral

twentieth-century art. He is in all the books, all the

framework for the viewing of art in Britain:

collections. But nobody has ever known exactly where to place him. Is he a progressive traditionalist

What is of great significance and interest is the

or a traditional progressive? A modernist or a

completely non-dogmatic basis of the Quaker

survivor? Should we see his crazily obsessive

religion. The idea of personal conscience (as opposed

paintings of bottles as figurativ e abstractions, or

to any other authority, either civil or ecclesiastical) as

are they abstracted figurations? In a handful of senses,

the arbiter of truth in serious matters. This

Morandi is a traditional artist, an inhabitant of the

transmuted into the consciousness (and the

border zones . '6

conscience) of the artist with no trouble at al1.'5 This sense of Morandi as being an artist onto whom Reyntiens proceeds to mention the impact of the Quakers

radically different positions can be projected has enabled

on British culture, their influence apparent in the writings

critics to view his work in relationship to a variety of

of Roger Fry, Adrian Stokes, Roland Penrose and Herbert

movements and trends within twentieth-century art, in a

Rl'aci. It would be easy to locate Morandi's life of austerity

way that few other' masters' have achieved. It is a paradox

and application within

thc~e

ideals. Furthermctre, Andrew

if British

Art, points to the

developments of the avant-garde could be seen as a point

Reformation as the defining mom('nt in British art, when

of reference for so many of these movements and

the word prevailed over the image. The tradition of the

attitudes.

Graham-Dixon, in A HiStory

iconoclasts in their systematic destruction of images, the

12

that an artist who so turned his back on the artistic

A further contributing factor in the spread of

MORANDI'S LEGACY

Morandi's reputation has been through the system of art

of the dedi cation, application and sacrifice that were

education in Britain. Until relatively recently, the art scene

required if you were to become a true artist.

has been inextricably linked with the art colleges, with

can

think

of few

artists

that

are

seen

as

most important artists holding teaching positions or being

quintessentially representing their home country and at

part of a large population of visiting tutors that toured the

the same time so embraced abroad . There is something

country; where you taught was as important as where you

si ngular within Morandi's practice and vision that has

showed. This has in recent years changed with the

connected particularly with British art and touches on

widening market for contemporary art, the opportunities

values that seem embedded in the British psyche. The

Il)r artists to survive off their work and the increased

image or perhaps the myth of Morandi seem s to resemble

demands and accountability within higher education.

a character from any number of Briti sh films : the bachelor

However, the support network that the colleges provided

with a curious hobby, the resigned teacher with a secret

cannot be underestimated in the manner in which ideas

other life, the slightly awkward character of regular habits,

and enthusiasms spread throughout the country. Almost all

the shy, modest, almost self-effacing individual unaffected

the artists in this exhibition have had an involvement with

by success . This reticence and formality find s its clearest

teaching - som e, like Caulfield, Craig-Martin, Cragg and

echo in Briif Encounter, a film (directed by David Lean in

Uglow, exerting considerable influcnce on subsequent

1946) which transcends its small canvas to reveal the

generations.

anguish and sense of longing behind the polite facade of

Drawing and painting from the motif or model is still

manners.

regarded as a core element in art education, especially at

Andrew Graham-Dixon speaks of the British avant

foundation level and the fir st year of degree courses. With

garde as consisting of more solitary figures, being more

the emphasis being on teaching how to look, Morandi was

'rear garde, content to remain apart or aside from the

held up as part of a small group of artists, along with

larger concerns of history', and rather than seeking to

Cezanne and Giacometti, who celebrated what Yves

overthrow the establishment, proposed 'benevol e nt, mild

Bonnefoy describes as 'the gaze' .'7 In thi s context, as

and cautious' change . '9

Ric hard Dorment observed , Morandi was seen as an

However, the myth of Morandi as a monk-like figure ,

exemplar and an artist to be taught through: 'Morandi is a

isolated from the rest of the ar t world, is one that docs not

painter's painter, and one from whom art students can

bea r interrogation and comes between the viewer and the

learn a great deal.' 18

work . In Janet Abramowicz 's recent biography, Giorgio

I myself was introduced to Morandi's work through a

Morandi: The Arc

<1 Silence,

she deconstructs this myth as

proj ect on my foundation course at Canterbury College of

being largely a combination of a convenience for the artist

Art that seemed to be replicated throughout the country:

and the perpetuation of the myth in the writings of

to paint a white still life. As an exercise the intention was

parti cular criti cs and

to i(ll'llS on light and form , without the distractions of local,

rem embering that Morandi was elected Professor of

information. Morandi was presented as the justification

Engraving at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, where

lh a~,

in spite of the limitations we felt were placcen on our

he taught continuously from] 930 to ] 956 , was includ ed

creati vity and desire to express, great aJ:t was possible.

in all the major survey shows of Italian art, was active on

Along with Giacometti , he was al so held up as an example

the selection committee for the Venice Biennale and, most

po e ts in Italy.

It is

worth

13

TOWARDS ABSTRACTION

problematically, was a supporter of Italian Fascism. His work was avidly co ll ected and included in many of the important public and private collections. But perhaps the British like their artists to be se lf-dfacing, to get on with

TOWARDS ABSTRACTION

their job and expect little acknowledgem ent, so the myth o f Morandi as an almost naive recluse is readily acceptable. The fire at the Momart storeroom s in London in 2004, which dl'stroyed hundreds of works of art by some of the

BEN NICHOLSON

c. 1930-36 (composition: sfill life) March 1962 (Argos)

leading British artists, was a salutary rem inder of the hatred th e British can have for art when they feel

GIORGIO MORANDI

threatened, exclud ed or, perverscly, when the artist

Landscape, r962

ach.il'\l:s financial succcss or inde pend ence. The spirit of the n.furmation and the fervour of th e iconoclasts were again rel eased in a fren zied attack on the validity of our

1 leave the heat of Bologna on an early morning slow train,

visual culture . David Aaronovitch, writing in Th e Guardian,

direction west, to Vertago. After a less than one hour train

seemed to sum up the popular feeling:

journ ey and a short taxi ride, I arrive in Grizzana (now rather awkwardly ca ll ed Grizzana Morandi ) , where

By this time, reaction to the fire in Britain had already

Morandi summered and painted. He stayed in ho tels in the

taken a decisive shift in an other direction : towards

r egion or with a friend who lived opposite, and in the

gkt' and schadenfreude. A virtual mob of journ ali sts,

1950s had a house built. A simpl e, fea tureless two-sto rey

pundits, radi o phone-in callers, letter-writers and vox

house , with marble fl oors and shutters to kel'p it cool, and

puppers declared in one way or another that the

now prcs('f ved as he le ft it when he died. Out of the

Momart lo.ss was Britain's gain. vVhoever set the

windows, along the street, are the views he painted . (I was

building alight, they implied, was an artist at least on

reminded of th e artist Anthony Gross who told me he had

a par with any of the creators in the Saatchi

two landscapes, one when he left his house and turned

co Iketion. '"

right, the other, when he turned left. r' Set on a quiet road twenty minutes ' walk fr om th e town, the house sits in a

J'vlorandi's stance as one who himself secmingly turn ed

landscape, like the artist himself, that is unassuming. It was

away from the public attenti on of the avant-garde to a

from here that Mo randi painted Landsca pe (1962 ) (p. 50),

more solitary and perhaps insular activity, serves to

one of many paintings he did of this subject.

p ro tect his reputation J.gainst thesl' violent reactions. In

This is not the grand vision of transce ndence, lih·

Morandi, the radi calism inherent in his work is concealed

Cezanne's engagement with Mount Saint- Vi ctoire, but a

under the gui se of tradition; the painter of bottles adopts

sense of a vision coming into focus through familial-ity.

stealth and cam ouflage to get through our defences.

Whil e his objects become familiar, so do the locations that he directed himself to paint. His is an eye tuned to nuance. On this particular day, the sun beating against the hillside flattens everything into soft tones of green, th e iso lated

14

TOWARDS ABSTRACTION

housl's nudge against the trees, a patch of pink or white

a landscape perceived through binoculars - subordinate to

against the green. Morandi does not intrude into lives as

this aim.

they are lived (unlike Hopper), but records the light

Nicholson, meanwhile, looks towards Mondrian and a

hitting the surfaces of these simple farm buildings, the very

pure ideal of painting, leading to the white reliefs. In March

l'ssc nce of the Italian countryside.

1962 (Argos) (p. 51) from the coll ection at Kettle's Yard,

The ideas in this book arc not exp lored chrono logically

Cambridge, the painting has become object, the carved

hut , since there must be a beginning, looking at aspects of

relief creating real shadows, real space as opposed to

(\ icholson in relation to Morandi is an appropriate place to

illusion , with the surface referencing flT SCO with its

start. Ben Nicholson encapsulates the spiri t of modernism

distressed surfaces and incised lines . The 1962 Landscape, one

that is such a fundamental element in the first half of the

of the most minimal that Morandi made, takes the two barns

twenti eth century. Beginning with subject matter from

against the edge of the hill and creates the shallowest of

stilll life and landscape, and under the influ ence of his

spaces. Morandi thwarts all the expectations of landscape;

father, William Nicholson, his work projects through an

there is no space to enter, the eye moves across as if scanning

abstracted art towards a purely formal abstract language.

a scene . The surface of the painting bears a similarity to the

I\,)icholson saw in Morandi' ... the person who continues

distressed and worked surfaces of Nicholson, the paint

father's art. He is the link between his art and mine. I

pushed and scrubbed. Thi s treatment of surface is also

always paint my still lifes with Morandi in mind.' '' Both

evident in c. 1930-36 (composition: stilf life) (p. 49), whe re

ylorandi and Nicholson are influenced by Cubism, but

Nicho lson juxtaposes clean painted forms with scumbled

while Nicholson takes on the space implications and

areas, creating a space constructed through overlay.

llW

hecomes increasingly concerned with the construction of a

There is a paradox in Nicholson: on one level there is

11ainting, Morandi, following a brief foray, rejects Cubism

the inform ed internationalist, the sophisticated well

in favour of a quest based on perception. Morandi was able

versed, leading exponen t of the avant-garde; on the other

to develop his language within the tradition of Italian

hand, and perhaps as an antidote, there is the discovery and

figurative painting, but while he was never an abstract

influence of the Cornish naive painter Alfred Wallis. A sl' lf

artist his underlying concerns are the ex ploration of

taught painter of boats and harbour SCl'I1es, Walli s used

formal values, the subjcct - whether a group of bottles or

cereal packets and other discarded material as hi s canvas,

rig
MOfo ndj '~ hou$e In Gfizzo no

F,a. j , G,oup ul barn s in Grizzono

15

TOWARDS ABSTRACTION

responding to their irregular shape as a dynamic element

into juxtaposition with the landscape , Sl·tting up m emo ri e ~

in the composition. Nicholson consciously takes o n and

of place and human prese nce . In

combines these two extreme positions - the knowing cool

still life) the objects, while retaining their identity as

abstraction of Mondrian with the primitive physicality

recognisable form s, are ahstract elements in this complex

of Wallis. Morandi, likewise, seems to encapsulate two

composition. The tabletop also repn'sents a landscape space

extremes, turning away from contemporary art and living

where forms recede and overlap. Nicholson's references

c.

1930-36 (composition:

an insul ar bachelor lifestyle shared with his sisters, while

are wry different to Morandi 's , informed as they are by a

conversely well-edu cated and active in the Italian

sense of culture and memory. They are also more exotic

contemporary art scene. Nicholson's cultured sense of

and suggest the joy of travel, new sights and experienccs:

landscape is all uded to in Charles Har ri son's essay for the 1969 Tate Gallery exhibition , where he stresses the importance of human presence in the paintings:

The re too, on shelves or tops of cabinets, are the collected mugs, jugs, bottks, carafes, compotiers that one has known over so long a period in Ni cholson's

But one should not regard austerity as lack of

paintings. Like the simple objects still standing in

humanity. Nicholson favours places which are neither

Cezanne's studio in Aix, these mugs and jugs have the

dcscrted nor urbanised, but places where man has

sense of being hallowed by the continuous aA'"ectionate

made his presence felt in the environment without

visual attention they have received over the yea rs ...

radically altering its character: Cumberland and

But it hardly needs saying that Nicholson is not

Cornwall, the Greek Islands, Britanny and certain of

concerned with recording resemblances to nature but

the older and smaller Italian cities - Siena, Pisa and

with the procl'ss of transmutati on into a related

Urbino. "

geometry of pictorial logiC and structured articulation.

While landscape and still life dominate the work of both

Maurice de Sausmarez"

Morandi and Nicholson , the latter freely moves his objects Morandi's approach to subject matter appears more

...

pragmati c

than

romantic. The

landscapes

remai.n

landscapes, the stiJllifes, still lifes; there is no blending of the two, no liberties taken. However, whilst the practice remains distin ct, he freely takes concerns from one to the other, searchi ng out formal similarities. In the landscapes, houses replace bottl es , sky an d earth replace his stages. Does Morand i have affection for his objects in the wa~ Nicholson did for his? I don't think so. While his objects have taken on a nostalgic shecA with time, they arc in essence com monplace and unprepossessing, only having

16

Fig. 6, Reconstruction 01 Morondr\ Siudio, Vio Fond=o, Bologno

significance onc(' they find their place in the paintings.

M useo M orondi Bologn

They are there for that moment of transformation from

TOWARDS ABSTRACTION

bric-a-brac to painting, after that they return to the floor

CLB: I was looking at Morandi at the same time as

of the studio, gather more dust and await their turn.

Turner. Turner, the great traveller who returns to put

I.ikewise with the landscapes , they do not signify the

his pictures together in the studio - maybe in London

higher achievements of civilisation. Unlike Nicholson, who

in the winter. The great travell er geographically and

gravitated towards singular events - the cathedral at Si ena,

also mentally. I was looking to accommoJatc them

I'isa's famous tower, or the picturesque Tuscan hill town of

both. What I was also seeing with Morandi was the

San Gimignano - Morandi celebrated a more earthy, basic

heightened surfa ce. A very self-conscious surface, so

('vidence of man in the landsca pe: barns and simpl e houses ,

when you are aware of his not travelling or being

nondescript and innocuous.

identified just with a couple

or

places, you feel that

somehow it is embodied in the super-sensitive surface of his wo rk . Beca use if he does not have the resoul-ee of story and hi story of the me ntal traveller like

CHRISTOPHER LE BRUN Cloud and Tree

Turner, then he must heighten the value of what does lay ncar to hand: the simple materials of paint and the handling. When considering how painting could be

GIORGIO MORANDI

self-sufficient, Morandi provided a clear example. How

Landscape, undated Landscape, 1942

do you make a flat surface interesting? How does it sustain thought and give rise to thinking' So Morandi was exemplary for me . And it also helped when

Two simple drawings by Morandi (p. 52) at first seem far

thinking about the work of Brice Marden and Robert

removed from the large Cloud and Tree painting of 1986 by

Ryman. How can you get a painting to produce feeling

Christopher Le Brun (p. 53). Morandi's drawings -

without Turner's wanderings and huge reach of

Ilrcparations for his paintings - tentatively delineate the

reference?

outline of tree , house and shadow as heing of equal value.

Those landscapes [of Morandi] always feel like a

They deliberately create a jigsaw of positive and negative,

con tinuing set of denial s. There is something ten-ibl y

where the softness of the pencil line opens up the

melan choli c about the fact yo u can't go round the

pm;sibility that these divisions on the pape r are not set;

corner, are not really invited even to think what might

they are semi -per m eable, as if the material to be contained

be around the corner. And you don't see the individual

in eaeh shape might migrate, seeping across the line. Le

leaves on the trees. Whereas Turner, if you'll allow the

flrun's painting treads a line that hovers between figuration

generalisation, shows an Engli sh willingness to offer a

Jnd abstraction.

but between an

route and encourage us to pursue or dream on it.

unrestrained ro manticism and cool minimali sm . Cloud and

Morandi doesn't. He seem s more to represent what

No t only

that,

/Tee represents an enactment of these conflicts, and the

Adrian Stokes said of Italian quattrocento art, how

success lies in the (kgree of tension across the surface

objects stand in the light of the sun self-sufficiently.

where both tendencies hold each other in check. Le Brun,

vVhereas my imagination never quite finds the world so

in conversation with me at his house in South London,

self-sufficient. .. I want to walk through it. I want to

ta lks very candidly about th ese conflicts:

remember things and I want to be somewhere else and

17

TOWAItDS ABSTRACTION

dream myself out a bit. 'vVith Morandi , things ju ~ t stand

spaces in between carry as much drama as the form s that

there in thi s unca nny melancholy.

one can name .

Lc Brun asserts the surface as being the eve nt ; the brush

CLB: One of the wonderful paradoxes o f painting is

marks both represent and stand fo r the mselves, shaping

that it is an acti vi ty co nsisting of covering up. Painting

the ~urface thro ugh the d irecti on and trace of th e brush.

is blocking off light. The white paint on a white can vas

They act as a counterpoint to the bold forms of tree and

is never as white as just the whitl' canvas. So with

cloud, the surfan' bei ng an accumu lation of d ecisio ns,

vario us d egn'l's of elaboration the painter is physically

which slowly and purposefully nudge th t' composi tion to

en acting a type of d enial, whi ch is the covering of the

completi on. As with Morandi, there is a feel ing that the

light-produ cing back or ground o f the painting. It was cl ear to m e that this primary physica l be haviour in the cOVl'ring of the pi cture embodi es a psyc holog ical attitud e to the im age. And I was the refore very stl·uck with the problem of su bj ect m atte r. What do I rea ll y want to see? And with that the rea lisati on that w hat vo u / want to see is not neccssJrily what yo u want to show. And furth er, how is the image that yo u want to make true? May be what might be more true is the way yo u go about painting what yo u want to see - the handling of th e m ater ials irrespective of the im age. In oth er words, that brings us back to the surface . Which is a position I think I would hold , if you wo uld ask m e to rank elemen ts of painting. I wou ld rank ' to uch ' above the imagi nary if suc h a thing wen' possible. And that i ~ one of th e things [ have thought most abo ut - how they interconnect, touch and surface and im age r y. ';

In Morandi 's drawings the senSl' of touch is very apparent. The pencil leaves evidence of its path as it strokes the surface o f the paper, picki ng up its texture, remi nding the viewer of the weave, the physicality of the paper. In thcsl' land scapes he is drawi ng shapes thro ugh the haze of a war m summer. Like Giacometti he is not looki ng to pin down a truth but more to say that within ce rtain paramctn s, t r uth might be found . He offers the fIg. 7. Chri$lopher Le Brurl. f,o m fIfty ftch'"9S, 1990 elching on poper,

proposi tion o f negotiatio n , that is no t fi xe d; wh en it com e

179 x 12.6 em, Tole

to the painting, these lines become guides not d irccti,·es.

18

THE PERSONAL ARCHIVE

THE PERSONAL ARCHIVE

Morandi 's studio and hi s personal archi ve , the obj ects awaiting their roles in hi s small dramas . In Still Life with Bottles fr om 1942 (p. 54), Morandi arranges a group

v i

bottl es , tins and vase s. The objects from this peri od retain their solidity and their independ ence as shapes. They

MICHAEL CRAIG-MARTIN

appear to have been made from the same substance; the re

Still Line

is no attempt to diffe rentiate t in fro m g lass fr om ce rami c. The tins ha ve bee n painted prio r to painting , the

GIORGIO MORANDI

information o n their labels erased , now a shape within a

Still Life with Sottles

shape, ano ther element to juggle . Likewise, in his painting Still Lin e (p. 55), Craig -Martin delineate's each object with

the same standard lin e, ignoring their materiality. He Entering the reconstructio n of Morandi 's studio in Via

d raws upon an arc hive , a virtual archive , constructed using

Fll ndazza at the Musco Morandi on the seco nd floor of

a vector progra mme and stored on his hard dri ve.

P.lIJ7.zo d' Accursi o, Pia7.za Maggiore, in Bologna, one is Paul Co ldwel l: In the context oj th is research, what I am really first struck by its size, no more than fo ur metres square. interested in in y our work is y our library

The second impression is the overall greyness ; a patina of

iffo rms that yo u ha ve

built up an d sorted in your co mpuler, in contrast to Morandi's

time seems to have enve loped eve rything, giving the physical library

impression o f an o ld photograph. The room is cluttered,

if obj ects which he could brina out, move aro und

and play with pri or to pa intina.

resembling the back of a store rather than either studio or I)('dro om. The entire colour is m uted to greys and sepias.

Michael Craig-Martin: It's true I do much the sam e thing

There seems to be no separat io n between the objects o f

with images. It 's been my intention to try to treat im ages

pai nting - bottles of o il, boxes o f paint, palettes - and the

of objects as mu ch like obj ects the mselves as pOSSible. I

ohj ects to bc painted . Loo king aro und I beg in an

think there 's also som ething that I relate to in the way he

inventory: wax fruit, silk flowers, a small mando lin,

uses representation . Obviou sly, you loo k at his paintings

silhouettes of clocks, co ffee tin s, assorted shells, bi scuit tin

and recognise what the thjngs are - an assemblage of small

(lemon creams) , boxes of crayo ns, candl esticks, plates ,

objects on a table or a shelf. But they o ften strike me as

bowls, cups, many vases (some more ornate than othe rs),

rep resentations of something o ther than the things in the

a teapot , etchings on the wall, right angles and setsquares,

picture . So it's not ju st a painting of o bj ects -

taU bottles, short bottles, stumpy bottles , perfume bottl es ,

conventi onal still life - but a reprc, r ntation of something

painted tins , a coffee pot , a small pocket clock pinned to

else. The subject isn 't the same as the content. I always see

the wall, hat , umbrell a, canvases, easels , bed , chair and the.

Morandi 's still life paintings, each with its horizon line, as

space where the etching press would have bee n.

landscapes or town scapes, not still lifes. I find his actual

a

There are three platform s, each at a different height,

landscapes hi s least successful work. What's pictured is not

like stage.s where Morandi would begin grouping his

the sam e thing as what is repre sented. Or at least not the

obj ects, each platform offering a different eye level and

only thing. Each object stays separate and yet the g roup has

positi oned to ca tch diffe ring lig ht. Th is co nstituted

been comprc.sscd in a way that creates so mething entirel y

19

THE PERSONAL ARCHIVE

different and unexpected . I've done a num ber of paintings

MC-M: Essentially [ call up a number of images o nto the

where [ have presscJ the images up against each other as if

screen and then [ start to move them around - the most

the air has been sucked out from between them . He does

difficult decision is which ones to LlSt" . There are so me

something like that all the time.

images that [ have that [ have hardly ever used and o th ers

But the way he uses hi s vocabulary of objects and J usc

I've Llsed a thousand times. It 's much mo re difficult findin g

my vocabulary of images is also an attempt to use

new images than I thought woul d be the

representati on as a form of abstraction. Of course all

with the idea that the im.1gl' should always be a fam iliar

paintings are Gbstract in cssence, but Mora nd i gets an

ex isting object - where to a person s('C'ing the image it is

unusually subtl e relationship between abstraction and

immediately defi nabl e, so that the question of speculati on

representatio n . His paintings arc illusionistic, but the

does not

three-dim ensio nal o bj ec ts he uses are always seen

work it shouldn 't be on ide ntifi cati o n.

frontally, overlapping, ab utting or standing directly in fr o nt

OCC UL

CJSC.

I stGr t off

SO where ver a pe rson's attention lies in my

PC: It wo uld be more reco8 nition'

of each o ther - flattened against the picture plane as mu ch as possible. They are highly abstract pain tings, ye t they al-e

MC-M : [f an object is ve ry recognisable then all th ose

not abstractions, they show things we recognise, things

things which we were say ing about sca le and material and

that tell us t heir scale and sense of mate ri al and that

usage in Morandi 's work come into being and the id ea that

establish a point of view

pi ctures of things ca rrya ll those meanings even though

all of \vhi ch wo uldn't occur if

they were absolute abstractions.

none arc represented. When I'm doing a drawing [ do n't differentiate between me tal and wood, or between soft and

pc : You would lose allej" that resona nce?

hard: the line is always exactl y the same, and yet as we all

MC-M :Yes, you would lose that, and also something about

know the objects we know that there is a mate ri al change,

them that rai ses q uestions about their cer tainty, where

we know where t here is a difference bet wee n the water

these things that look so certain star t to fracture, and

and the bu cket ... The info rmation is in the vie we r, it's not

you're not so sure what yo u're looking at. Their ide ntity

in the drawing. I try to ca ll on that.

isn't as stable as fir st appears. My idea of using the same

pc: So the viewer is a ve,:), active parti cipanc in your pictures

images repeatedly is that every time [ change the context

'

o f an image, it changes; [ don't Ill'cd a new image , bl'ca use

MC -M: That is always my intention , beca use I came from

the con tex t has made it new.

using real objects, and my work involved an emphasis on the sense of immediate, direct engage ment between thl'

PC: In Mora ndi's work there is a ran8e of activity that happens bifore anythi n8 is commilted dusc allowed

to

to

canvas, objects are re-arran8ed,

settle, che obJeccs themselves are ej"ten painted. By

cOlllrast,you have this library

ej" ready -made dra,win8s or perh aps

they should be called already made drawin8s. I am velf interested in howYOli manipulace and re8a rd thcoc ima8es bifore usi n8 them

in a picture.

viewer and the objcl·t. T he idea of the act ive viewe r, whose ro le is ncc('ssar y fo r the compl etion of the work , is o ne

Duchamp 's realisations that always fascinated me .. . Even looking at pictures invo lves the active participati on of thl' viewer. We have a bizarre perceptual gift of being able to look at a two-di me nsional outline of so m ething and experience the prese nce of so mething that isn 't phYSically there. Again its not in the picture, it's in us.

20

or

THE PERSONAL ARCHIVE

pc: And th at 's also cultural?

my own dl-awings beca use [ couldn't fi nd th e draw ings that [ assu m ed ex isted.

MC- M: Ve rv much so. [ am in ter ested in the natu re of j

ify ou are using

perception and the way o ur !)er ceptual limitations affect

pc: There is a tendency J ar people

to

our und erstanding of thi ngs. So much of our p er cepti on

the computer you ' ve got to get

grips wi th its co mplexity, but

(icI-c lo ps as a culturally learnt too l. J make t he kind of

when yo u use a penCi l yo u are not expeCted to demonstra te itsJ u!l

dra\\'ings J do because I am fascinated by th e natu re of

range.

picture-m aking at th e m ost basic le ve l. Most arti sts w ho lI SC

re presen t ation al imagery take for g ranted the

possibility of l'epresentation itse lf, and work on th e basis tha t it's a given. What J am tryi ng to look at is th e thin g that exists just b elow th at level. I have a sense that there is something that happe ns in immediate r ecognitio n w hich is c1 iH'crent from som ething th at deri ves from specul ation

MC-M: Yo u 're r ight - J believe in learning th ese things on a 'n eed- t o -kn ow' basis. Comp uter al)p lications like Photoshop can take a lifetime to learn, bu t most of what they can do is use less anyway if yo u do n 't have something to do w ith it ... Th ere's a mvth ab ou t th e difficultv of j

j

learn ing to do things, because ac tu all y w he n you ha ve a

0 1'

fro m g radual unfold ing, someth ing b etween see ing and understanding - a kin d of apprehension.

re al sense of urge ncy abo ut som e thin g yo u w ish to do, an actual task invol ving some m ad t hing y() U want to see, yo u work towar ds th at, and learning is com p aratively cas)'.

pc: Anoth er aspect in your work is that on e recognises these things but they actua/0' exist outside

to

thin k that

of t he specific of the object.

When my son was born I had an image in my head

PC: Th ere is a qua li ty in your work where it is apparent that yo u make a deci"ion but the hard work is concealed.

cj' a yellow

ruhher duck wh ich I wanted hi m to have in th e bath, and I went

MC-M : I go to so me le ngth s to try to m ake it look as if my

ou t with this im age ~f what I th ought was the quintessen tia l

work takes little effo rt , just as it takes a lot of work by hand

yellow ruhbcr duck an d I co uldn 'tfind it anywh ere, everyo ne that

to m ake it look like it's machin e made . The usefulness of

I sa ll' was a disapp ointment, but the model

of it in

my h ead was

parcel,

the computer as a tool is th at it all ows me to clo any number of studi es and variati ons and t o see the impact of so m etimes very small changes befor e fi nall y comm itting

.vlC-M: T his kind o f ex pe ri e nce is e xtrem e ly familiar to

myse lf. It e nabJ es me to do d oze ns of draw ings fo r a sing le

me . When J decided to use pi ctures o f thin gs, beca use I had

painting.

spent so much t ime usi ng ready-mades of co urse my first

I was pkascd you as ked me to p articipate in this

rcaLtion was to fin d ready -made pictures. I th o ught I'd find

exhibition because I've always been attl'acted to Moran di's

drawings of differe nt objects and put th em t ogether.

work. I spent a lot of my own early wo rk moving from one

F\exyone thinks th ese draw ings of thin gs ex ist out th e re in

kind of acti vity to another, one medium to another. I am

th e \\"Orld . But every time I found a pictu re it seemed

happy w ith my work of that peri od , but at the tim e I fe lt

\\Tong, not what [ was lookin'g for. [ was looking for a kind

like eac h p iece was essent ia lly a o ne off and prov ided m e

of neutral drawi ng, a d rawing that w as st ra ig ht in th e way

with little sense o r p oss ibility o f g rowth and developm ent.

the objects th em selves are. Everything I fo un d shovved too

When [ started making lin e draWings in the late '70s I had

much of th e des igner 's style, too mu ch o f th t information

no idea where it might lead but I soon gained the sense th at

\\"as over si m pli fied, cartoon like. And so I started making

it was o pening one do or aft er an oth e r for me. Most of th e

21

THE PERSONAL ARCHIVE

art that interests me has been the result o f sonwhody

that they'r e commonplace means that they ho ld a central

purs uing som ething very li mi ted over a lo ng period of

pl ace in our lives . The things which are the mo st

tim e. Morandi is one , and Mondri an is another, co mplete ly

ubiguito us, to whi ch we give th e least value, the things we

difkrent. But in bo th cases it is their dogged persiste nce

take for g ranted , that are not special, are ultimately by far

that lends the ir work such author-ity.

the most important in de fining ourselves and our lives . Mo randi used th e most o rdin ary, more o r less valuekss

PC: ContraclinB in order to exp and

'

things around him . They are al ways modest, som etimes

MC· M : Yes . The g reater the numbe r of apparent optio ns

charming, but their ex pressive power in Morandi 's hands

the fewer effective decisions arc possibl e .

arises fro m their ordinariness .

pc: I am vel)' aware in yo ur wo rk that y ou impose certain rules

Peo ple oft en forget what we mean when we .q y that art can change o ur perception. Thro ugh art aspects of the

- Ja r example, that you miBht decide that the line is continuous.

world that are unseen or tho ught of as valu eless can be or that th e line will make th e obj ect op aq ue. and tha l scts up a seri es

if new Ba mes to play out in the pi ctures.

MC-M: Essenti all y, making art is about making rules and

bro ught to the surface uf o ur attention where they can be recognised as both impo rtant and beauti ful.

pc: And sudden6fyo u see th ose thinBs throuBh out th e world.

then acting within them. Rul es all ow certain things and disall ow others. They're not fix ed or absolute. Often th ings

MC-M : Yes. !·

get most interesting when yo u break yo ur own rul es at an un expected point.What I would like my work to d o is show you cl early what it is that is happening, so you can see what I' ve d o ne -

it's like do ing a magi c trick and

explaining it at the- same time that you're doing it . It 's very

WILLIAM SCOTT

Grey Still life

ex posed. It doesn 't pl ay games, it doesn 't trick yo u and even wh en it does, it 's showing yo u that you're being

GIORGIO MORANDI

tricked.

Still life, '956

pc : Yes. William Scott is ano ther British artist whose work is MC-M : I need my work to have real visual clarity - I want

distingU ished by a repertoire of fam iliar objects. In Scott 's

you to be able to separate o ut the bits - to look at the

case it is th e kitchen that provides the com mon gro und fo r

draw ing and forget the colour, look at the colo ur and

his family offorms , with knin's and for ks, pots, saucepan s,

fo rge t the drawing , look at the composition and fo rget the

fr ying pans, plates and food suc h as eggs , fishe s and fruit

images , look at the content and fo rget the picture , so that

provi d ing the ingredi ents o f tabl etop co mpositi ons. Sco tt

each one o f these things are separable and c;;n be seen to

referC'

act se parately. In most art these things are inextricably

Ce zann e ,

intermeshed, and what I'm trying to do is to separate them

pro minent. On to p o f this was the excitement generated

o ut.

fr om American painting, with Sco tt being gUi c k to

I use comm onplace things, because [ think the ve ry fact

22

~ cs

French painting as hi s in sp iration, with Co ro t,

Ch ard in,

Bonnard

and

recognise the greatness in Rothko 's paintings.

Dubuffet

THE PERSONAL ARCHIVE

Scott's work fo llows that familiar p atte rn from

Berlin Blues. The still life forms, severely abstracted, I'ead

hguration through to abstraction, but throughout his

like musical notati on, the fryin g pan, pots and sau cepans

shapcs are informed by and recall those familiar kitchen

reminisce nt of notes in a scal e . This is reinforced by the use

ohjects. Whereas M orandi, as I have mentioned previ ously,

of scal e, which allows fo r the viewer to become imme rsed

turned away from the route towards abstl'action, retaining

in the canvas, the fi eld of vision filled with colour,

till' solioity of form and intel'play of light and shadow, Scott

nec('ssitating flatter and more styli sed form s.

increasingl y flatten ed his space , abstracting the form s t o

Morand i's Still Life o f 19 56 (p. 56), one of a series of

shapes as in the beautiful and auster e Grey Still Life of 1969

quite stark paintings with very Sim plified objects rendered

(p. ) 7). The shapes reference stylised pots and bowls, w ith

as block s of pastel colours , resonates with Sco tt 's musical

the table edge rctained as a formal dcvi ce .

concerns, The familiar reperto ire of obj ects is he re

Scott's se nse o f still life revolves around an obser ved

redu ced to th eir Simpl est o f forms. The fro nt edge o f the

logic. There is naturalness abo ut these fo rm s coming

table and the wall behind cr eate a shallow space wher e the

together ,vith the obvious narratives of cooking and eating

m ost minimal o f clues enable a three-dimen sion al re adin g.

and their co nn otati ons of family life. The objects Scott

In additi on, the harmony of colours, modul ati ons o f

are generi c, simplified fo rms that are immediately

ochres , pinks, green s and greys, encourages a reading as if

recogni sable . The frying pans and saucepans carry with

this were the visualisati on o f a sona ta. But whil " Scott takes

them Protestant functi onality -

earthy, unprete nti ous

his painting into the scale of mural, like Rothko , saturating

ohjects th at are used as part of a daily I'itual, obj ects that

the viewer with colo ur, Morandi kee ps his objects sight

you would find in any rural se tting. A good obj ect is on e

seen, tru e t o the world per ce ived: hi s canvas sizes

lhat serves its purpose .

generally around a me re 35 x 45 cm.

d 100 SCS

As with Morandi , Sco tt 's for m s are stripped o f decorati on and propose a ri c h, simple life. [n the late 1940s these compositions metamorphose with landscape, as tabl etops are transform ed into Corni sh harb ours, while the 'convcl'sations' between Scott's objects begin to take on more sC'xual overtones as his utensils reach out to each other, tou c hing and penetrating , like silent ne rvou s l'l1COunters, alluding to an erotic life of unspoken desires and fears. The tabl etop is a p lace o f negotiation, an attempt to orde r while all owing for subve rsion . The objects take on a life of their own. They have echoes of Bonnard and of Art Brut in the treatment of surfa ce. But the re is an attempt to • elevate the mund ane, to prescr ibe a dignity th at all things can aspire t o , if they find thei r pl ace.

Gre), Still Life al so allud es to musi ~ , with Scott encourag ing this connection thro ugh the titl es o f such works as Still L!fe wirh Oran8e l\ o/c or the se ries entitled

23

THE

STUDIO AS A LABORATORY OF THOUGHT

THE STUDIO AS

A LABORATORY OF THOUGHT

down the strcct somewhere, that's all the material that we can sum up and we can say that this is our culture. It 's the n dictated to utilitarian production, so it populates the world with useful things. Well, the first thing about that is to see that utilitarianism becomes an enormous source of forms ... like the milk bottle and the sugar bowl. I am interested in making things that

TONY CRAGG

nobody knows unless I go into my studio and make

Early Forms

them mvself. / So once I actually, for my own needs, got invol,,;
GIORGIO MORANDI

with using the vessels in a more generic way, then, not

Still I.He l

in a concentrated wa)', [ becam e more aware of

J962

Morandi's work.

For over thirty years Cragg has evolved a sophisticated

Cragg's studio complex, purpose built on an industrial

sculptural vocabulary from man-mad e objects, beginning

estate in Wuppertal, is a combination of factory and

with plastic flotsam left high and dry on the beach, which

laboratory. While Morandi surrounded himself with found

he gathered and used to form mosaics of anything from police in riot gear to the British Isles tilted to be viewed from the north, onto a concerted engagement with the manufactured object as container. Many of these objects, like the plastic milk bottle , are so ubiquitous that they have bel'Ome invisibl e until Cragg re-presents them as carriers of new meaning. It is inevitable that comparisons are drawn with Morandi's family of forms, his jugs and bottles. Cragg observes: Fig 8. Tony Craggs studiO. W uppertai. Gelmany

'vVe surround ourselves with objects, human beings extend themselves with materials and with that they make objects in an evolutionary, in an exi stential necessity so we feel better with clothes on, sitting on a sofa, in a room, in a building, in a street, and all this is material which we have secreted outwardly

~ ec ause

we

survive better like that. It's an existential strategy if you like. So that provides a reality of useful objects. Now, that utilitarian appearance of the world that we know when we are sitting in rooms, or whe n we're walking

24

Fia 9 , Tony Cragg's studio, W upperloi, G ermany

THE

STUDIO AS A LABORATORY OF THOUGHT

identity, they surrender themselves to the comfort and security of being a group, As Cragg states:

More than photographs , I find them more so, I find the vessels take on the character of my neighbour, my brother, my sister, my aunt. Here we are with these relationships, these groups of friends, who we keep m eeting in the same spaces, Fig 10, Reconslluclion

of Morandi's sludio, Vic Fondozzo , Bologna,

Museo MOlOndi, Soloono

Morandi's bottles are lined up for inspection; there is an order to the arrangement, light, dark, light, dark, light.

objects Cragg manufactures them, scaling them up so that

The almost equal intervals across the surface present a

Clcn the most banal become invested with a new grand eur,

formal austerity, only softened by the modulati on of tones

Shelves of ex periments and works in progress testify to a

and the resistance of the objects (each bottle is quite

Iluidi ty of visual thought, and everywhere mater ial is in the

different) to conform completely. Overriding it all is a

process of being transformed, Cragg maintains:

pictorial structure that keys every incident to its place within the canvas, with even the signature functioning as

I am not a conceptual artist. Morandi didn't even know

an active clement within the composition,

what one was, [ like to have a lot o f material around

Cragg's work has been epitomised by hi s concerns with

me, If I'm sitting on the so fa, my work is the last thing

making scu lptures fr om groups of objects, where

I'm capable of doing, I can only work by beginning to

independ ent clem ents become locked into a new totality,

push things arou nd and looking at certain things and

These sculptures ar ti culate, amo ngst other things, an

manipulating them, You are absolutel y right in that

understanding of molecular systems, endorSing the idea of

sense in that you will see she Ives of boxes full of stuff

interdepend ence and mutual compatibility, Early Forms

that I have been car ting around for the last twe nty-fi ve

(1993) (p, 59) is on e of a series of sculptures where he

~l'ars,

So I do necd this stuff around and it 's a big check

presents what appears to be a gro up o f objects that have

on your life when you return to an object and you see

been physically mor phed into one single new form, The

it another two years later. These are specific markers

viewer is aware that this object is a composite, an industrial

and you measure yo ur life on these experiences of

hybrid, and a form new to the world, detached from

meeting them aga in,

practical function, The piece ho ld s in ten sion two propositions: firstl y, that an internal form has created the

~I()randi,

too,

con tin uall y retu rns t o his objects,

external profil e, and secondly, that the interior space is a

reconfigured each tim e, as a new set of visual problems, In

consequen ce of external imperatives, The lip, delineating

his painting of 1962, Still Life (p, 58), Morandi presents the

inside from o ut, also acts as a drawn element to take the

bottles arranged as if they form a family group waiting to

eye on a journey of ex ploration, the speed of the line in

be photog,-aphed; there is a formal presentation' to the eye

contrast to the slow languishing forms . In thi s case Cragg

which one scans across, While retaining their individual

uses bronze as a unifying surface. Througho ut his oeuvre,

2S

THE

STUDIO AS A LABORATORY OF THOUGHT

surface has been the subject of myriad propositions, from

before he selected them, Likewise Cragg, in sandblasting

freely drawn crayon lines on wood, such as Echo (1984),

these glass vessl'is, strips them of any detail, leaves them as

through to surfaces composed of thousands of plastic dice

pure shapes and even removes from them that most valued

such as Secretions (1998), now in the collection of Deutsche

quality of glass, its transparency, In Cumulus he stacks

Bank London.

scores of these sandblasted vcsscls, making a singk opaque

In thl' 1990s Cragg made a number of pi ec('s using sandblasted glass, These works, which refer back to the

glowing form, each clement surrendering its individual autonomy to the whole:

early flotsam pi eces in the manner in which the surfaCl's are eroded, offer a further parallel with Morandi, Morandi

If you're talking about the gIJss works, which are

was not content to let his objects reprcscnt themsl'hl's as

blasted, it's a different kind of energy - a morbidity

they had in their previous existence; he concealed their

that engenders a very particular light, and it makes the

identities, painting them prior to the painting itself, and

glass have more of a body. If I make a large volume of

allowed dust to gather, gradually disguising the detail that

glass that is sandblasted and a large body of glass that

might have IC)l'ated tlwsc objects specifically in the world

isn't, the one that's not sandblasted is almost four times heavier. It seems quite obvious to say but somehow your eye just goes through it because you don't scc anything so you add more and more material. It's a kind of Duchampian strategy, which also starts with the ceramic object [Unnal] if you like, This offered a kind of shock to a bourgeois society and we know how that's developed over the last 100 years as a major strategy for getting things which belong to the non-art world, through a change of context, into the art world, And so we may have the feeling now as we go into the twenty first century that that strategy is running out of stl'am, But at the same time Morandi stands at exactly the same point, he dOl'S look at nature, and he does look at the figure, but very rarely, but he's looking at man made consciousness already, he's looking at things that are already made by man, There is passivity in tho se pictures, and a will to almost autistically concentrate on his problem and ignore everything else, And to solve what one can in the problem one sets oneself, and it's important for what it cuts out; we're talking about what's in the picture, you have think about what he's cut out of the

Fig. 11 Tony Cragg, Cumulus. 1995,

glo ~s,

265 x 120 x 120. Tol e

picture , J7

THE LANGUAGE OF LINE

THE LANGUAGE OF L N

planned (The Rake's Pro8ress has a quality of spontaneity and impulse), and sl'condly, more grounded. This is evident in th e manner that cross-hatching is used expressively, often in conju_nction with areas of aquatint. Cross-hatching essentially was a way of rendering tone

DAVID HOCKNEY

through linear means before the advent of aquatint and is

A Wooded Landscape The Haunted Castle

the forerunner of the photographic half tone where th e image is translated through a screen into areas of dots of varying size (the newspaper photogra ph being the most

GIORGIO MORANDI

common example)

Savena Landscape landscape at Grizzana

Morandi's theme is the truancy of vision. His prints are, on one level, literalisations of the id ea that to See is to construct - that we sec everything through the

Printmaking can too often be viewed as a secondary

screens imposed by mental habit and the biology of

activity, a way of reproducing visual ideas th at find their

the human eye. Art cannot mirror the world, it can

primary explOl-ation within the artist's painting. In the case

only encode it - a theme which Morand i recognised

or Hockney and

the print is well adapted to express.

Morandi there is a genuine engagement

with the process of printmaking, not only as a mean s of

Andrew Graham-Dixon l '

rea ching a wider audience but also for celebrating th e very p;}rtiCldar qualities that th e m edi um offers. Etching was

Hockney was well familiar with Hogarth's prints such as

HTy important for Morandi, not only providing him with

The Rake's Pro8ress where, as was common practice, cross

;}n income as Professor of Eng,-aving, but also for his

hatching was used as an overa ll m echanical means to

health, in his belief that a copper plate under his mattl-ess

render tone and suggest colour. But Hockncy seizes on the

forces.

expressive potential in thi s traditional process, detaching it

Printmaking for him was a form of alchemy, mixing the art

fi-om its previou s rationale, using the regular screen of

of the chemist with the philosopher.

lines as a counterpoint to th e fluidity of his drawing. In The

wuu ld

protect

him

from

electromagnetic

For both Morandi and Hoekney, th eir prints represent

Haunted Castle (1969) (p. 63) th e sky is rendered as an

suhstantial and sustained body of work, central to their

overall area of cro.,s-hatching, a reminder that for all the

artistic practice. For Hockney, th e quality of line realiscd

space that is implied in th e solidity of the castle, this is a

through etching immediately offered rich potential for him

image conjured from marks on a surface. Furthermore, as

to explore. In 1969 he produced a seri es of prints to

in A Wooded Landscape (p. 61), he works in conjunction with

accompany six fairy tales f'rom th e Brothe rs Grimm. They

aquatint so that th e deeply incised lines animate the

arc all etchings and aquatints anel build on the previous

otherwise flat areas of tone and indeed question the very

series of The Rake's Pro8ress and lIlustrationsJor thirteen Poems

convention of cross-hatching. While Hockney's prints revel

from C. P Cav'!fj. Howeve r, th ey have a very different quality

in innovation, a feature that was to develop through a

from these two previous series. Firstly, they appear more

staggering range of procl~ ssCS taking in, amongst others,

J

27

THE LANGUAGE OF LINE

lithography, fax and xerox and the extraordinary paper pulp im age~ of swimming pools, Morandi, having learnt his craft (sel f-ta ught from old manual s including The whole

f

art

of drawina,

limmina and etchina , published in 1660 by

Odoardo Fialetti , a copy o f which can be found in the British Library), developed a g raphic language almost exclusively from the limi ted means o f hard g ro und e tching and cross -hatch ing. As in hi s overall practice, his approac h to print is to close down options in o rd e r to go dee per. (William Till ye r in his prints from the 1960s also fix ed upon the use of cross- hatching as a way of developing images which s(Tmed to emerge o ut of the grid,) Morandi's graph ic language, whilst in cs.sence ve ry simple and direct , provides for a wide va riet), of solutions, as can be s('cn in SaFena Landscape ( 1929) (p . 60) and Landscape at Gri zza na ( 19 32) (p. 62). Morandi wo uld etc h the plates with care to ensure that the lines retain ed the ir specifity and did not expand into o ne ano ther. Thi s required a refined sensitivity to the basic e lements oj' etching: metal, acid, ink and, in particular, time, It is through the control of time that th e tona l values of the print are established - the longe r in the acid , the darker the line, In this way the surface of these prints vibrates with a sense of light that keeps e ven the darkest areas ali ve and open, A fUl-th er point , pa'-ticularly evid e nt in these prints, is the usc of the paper as a colour, Morandi draws with the wh.ite une tched areas, the paper being the fir st lightest tone, he leaves the road and the sky un l'tched, but the road, contained as it is, takes on a di ffe ren t charJctcr to the sky, T he re is an inte resting com pari so n to be made betwee n Morandi 's Landscape at Gri zza na and Hockney's A Wooded Landscape. Compositi o nally, they both use the device of the tree to the left of the picture to lead into the space and provid e essenti al c1ul'~ of scale . While Mo rand i

rIg. 12, DOVld Hockney, Tile PrtllCess in Her Tower (detail), from II/uwolions (or Six

places his tree within the picture as a marke r, Hockn ey

Foiry Toles (rom Ihe 8rclhers Gnmm, 1969, etching 45 x 32 em, MOlco livi ngsto n

presents hi s as a fram e, a flattened shape emphasisi ng the

28

THE lANGUAGE OF LINE

convcntion. Likewise, Hockney raises the eye level to

PAUL COLDWELL

stress the journey from Foreground, over the fi elds, to the

Pestle & Mortar

house on the hill , while Morandi's hOI-i zo n is concealed hehind the turning in the road . The barn is just discernable

GIORGIO MORANDI

JS a triangle of light .

Still Life in Broad Strokes

Hockn ey's use of white is equally incisive. In the Grimm etchings he makes a feature of the plate wiped

Most days I travel from my home in north London across

ckan, using it to both indicate colour but also stillness ,

to Camberwe ll where I teach. The journey takes me on a

acting to inte nsify those areas of drawn acti o n. In

familiar route, through Whiteehapel, the edge of the City,

I lockney's prints there is a playful approach to convention

over Tower Bridge through Bermondsey to Peckham.

Jnd hov,I styles can be freely embraCl'd , Th e GJa ss Mountain

London is a spreading metropolis, with a continually

heing a small essay in the graphic co nve ntion s of

evolving skyline as new towers appear and familiar

repn'sl'ntation. Morandi, meanwhile, appears at fir st to sit

landmarks become hidden or diminished. My work has

comfor tably within the convention but as can be Sl'l"n in

centred on o bj ects and ou r relationship to them, presence

Still Life

in

and absence. I have become awa re that this daily journey

radical

position

Broad Suokes actually takes o n an increasingly in

respec t

to

lin e

e tc hing

representation.

and

across Lond on has informed my sculpture and graphic work. In man y of my prints I fo cus on sculptures that I have made in the studio, which in turn become elements in my prints. But in thi s case, the objects I have used are found, a pestle and mortar. However, since the act of pho tog raphy can also be seen as the act of possessing and claiming ownership, once selected, the object becom es mine as much as if I'd made it myself. In the resulting print, Pestle

&..Mortar (1999) (p. 65), the objects carry both domestic connotations of th e kitchen aJongsiJe those of the studi o or laborato r y. The ir fun ction - to transform - is perh aps appropriate to be integrated within a dig itally made image, since when working digitall y all input becomes tran sform ed as it is procl'ssed into data; in this in stance the F,g '3, The Whole Rood outside Morandi's house. G rlZl ono

photograph beconll's as fluid as a drawing. By introduci ng the fing er prints into the image, I wanted to set up tensions not only between the languages of photography and drawing, but also between the surface and the impli ed space of the photograph. While the image is, on one level, quite straightforward, the viewer has to work ha rd to decipher it and needs to become actively involved in the

29

nlE LANGUAGE Of LINE

act of looking. The half-tone dot acts as a scnTn through

Everything is rendered through an orehvstration of etched

which th f' viewer perCl'ives a sha llow space, whil e the

lines, patches of tone rendered through the relationship

fingvr print itself b"comes another screen, assert ing the

and denSity of the lines . Morandi has settled on a limited

picture sur!C1('c, fun ctioning to both con ceal and reveal.

number of tonal intervals and the viewer has to visualise

The pixelated surfal'c also creates a slippagv between

the intermediary steps . From what the artist provides, thl'

whnv the fingerprint begins and ends.

viewer is left to actively add to the image of the bottks,

Morandi's prints have been a constant source of

and fill in the gaps. In my prints the photographic half-tone

first became aware of hi s work in the

repla n's Morandi's cross-hatching as a way of asserting t1w

1970s. Still Llj'e in Broad Strokes (1 931) (p. 64) is o ne of the

surface . Through the comp ute r, I am able to manipulate

larger format prints that MOI-andi made in the period

these dots, building up patterns through which thc objl;cts

betwecn 192733, during which he produced eight~' - s i x

can be perceived. I want to conjure the space that objects

prints, half of his total output. In this print, a stagl' proof

occupy and the melancholy of their absence - natura monu,

(the final print having the highlights on the o bjects

rather than still life, Like Morand i, through using a centrall

delinl'~ted

undramatic viewpoint with events parallel to the horizon,

in spiration since

J

polished to Vv'hite), the objl'l'IS are dramaticall y

again st a cross -hatched bac kg round, to the extent that

I want to emphasis the concerted ga uze and set up a

some of the objects are reduced to fragments, elements

framework of order and equilibrium in order to disrupt,

that have become detached, disem bodied, the shadows becoming one with

the overall

background

Morandi's practice of manipulating both his objects ;md

tone.

arrangements prior to making the print or painting is a

Refl eding Bologna in the heat of the summer, the dcep

further point of connection. Morandi possessed his

colonnades o ffer protection, but also submerge form s into

objects, taking th em out of the continuum o f the world

the darkness, forms which then hoap out as they emerge

into his own domain, fir stly by se lection, secondly h~

and are caught by the light - an arm suspended, a face

modifying the o bject (painting it or allowing dust to settle )

sli ced, a ('oat cut in two . I am certain that there is a

and thirdly through th e grad ual refinem e nt of thl'

memOl-y in this print of a sim ilar experience that Morandi

arrangement. There can be seen in this an almos t pencrs('

would have witnessed.

delay

in

gratification ,

further

reinforced

in

hi s

Morandi 's prints from this period demonstl-ate an

printmaking, with the practice of making test strips to

('xu'aordinary I-Jnge of poss ibil ities from just the tech nique

ascertai n the exact length of tim e for the plate to be etC' hcd

of hard ground e tc hing, from Various Objects on a Table

in the acid. The actual act of producing the print or the

( 193 1), whrrc the finest cross-h atc hing co njures an

painting is di spro port ionately qUick in relation to thl'

apparition of these objects as if seen as a gro up through a

preparation and anticipation. Likewise in my practice, it is

haLl', to Grand Still Life with a Coffee Pot of 1933, where the

important to me that the final print conceals its often

organisation of tones creates a h:>i' ling of warm sunligh t

pond ero us and lengthy evoluti on. Making the objects,

acrllSS the cknse arrangeme nt of his familiar

(~bj ec t s .

setting up the photograph, manipulating the image within

In Still L!fe in Broad Strokes, the su rface of the print is a

the computer, working in numero us layers to graduJn~·

mass of lines, trapping the forms in its web. The image

bring the imagl' to completion, are simply ways of keeping

asser ts the lang uage of its making; this is not naturalism

the image fluid with all elements up for change until thl'

bu t t he most appropriate form of r econst ru ction,

very last minute. J

WAITING 'tOOMS

space?' - could Simil arly apply to the work of Willing and

WAITING

OOMS

Winstanley.

Willing imagines spaces, cr eating rooms where mysteries are conjured. And everyth ing that is in the

VICTOR WILLING

paintings was meant to be th ere. Everything had to

Still life with Model Soot

have a real reason to be th ere, to occupy o r define space. Vic didn't approve of devices. In all his

GIORGIO MORANDI

paintings, emotion s felt physically and ideas

Still life, '961

developed conceptually are expressC'd formally. His work moves backwards and forwards between the figurative and the abstract, th e funny and the

We know the joys and sorrows to be found in a

disturbing, working out how best to express what he

gatc,yay, a street corner, a room, on th e surface of a

thought and trap the viewer into engaging with th e

ta hle , between the sides of a box ... An astronomy of

picture, without the need to exp lain away all its

things is established by the perfect knowledge o f the

seCl-ets.

space an object should occupy in a picture, and of the

Paula Rego "

space that separates one object from another ... The canons of th e Metaphysical aesthetic li e in th e minute

Willing was an enigmatic figure in British post-war art and

and precisely estimated deployment of surfaces and

one of the few to take on the challenge of expression as

,·olumes.

laid down by Francis Bacon. He was articulate and alive to Giorgio de Chirico

29

influences outside Britain, most notably in th e poignant sense of frozen time in de Chirico and th e existential

For a brief period, Morandi was part of th e group of

absence in Giacometti. It is also clear that Morandi 's work

~'lctaph;'sical artists, under the leadership of de Chirico

made a d eep imprf'ssion.

and Carra. In many ways this was a defining moment for ~'!()ra ndi,

Willing, after exhibiting in a number of important

establishing him at the centre of the Italian avant

shows in London, moved to Portugal with Paula Rego,

garde, and while his conscious engagement with the

con tinuin g to paint and for a while running the family

mo\"(~ment

o nl y lasted a few years (1916- 19) there is a

business. Following the revolution in POI-tugal th ey

sense in which Morandi remain ed a Metaphysical artist all

r eturn e d to London with their family, Willing now

his lift:. Andrew Fo rge, in his introduction to th e 1970 Arts

diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Three inca Two Won '(

Council exh ibiti on \\Tote: ' \Vhat do we mean by an object,

Go was one of a number of paintings made while on a

h(' asks himself. What are the boundaries, which separate

residency at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in 1982.

one thing from another? 'vVhat are the ways of focusing by

By this stage , Willing was confined to a wheelchair and was

\\hich I divide the world up in discrete things or groups or

aware that this was his last opportunity to produce large

relationships?' "' These questions that Forge identifies - and

paintings. The collegC' gardener would call in to th e studi o

I \Yould add, ' how is it possible to evoke the silence of a

each day to check if he was alright and would turn the

31

WAITING ROOMS

paintings around so that he could paint the top that

more in this room than we are all owed to see . There is

otherwise he couldn't reach.

connection between Willing' s paintings of this period and

\1

Willing's work constructs spaces, corners of rooms (a

the work of Michael Kenny, Paul N('agu and Carl Plaxham,

reference to Bacon and Bachelard) and a metaphysical

amongst others, wh o were exploring me t aphysical

sense that there is something beyond representation. The

propositions through sculpture.

o bj ects await to be negotiated and, like de Chirico's

When J spoke to \Villing afte r the exhibition of his

l) iazzJs, there is a mood of foreboding and mystery, only

drawings at Karste n Schubert in 1987, he was eager to

lightened by his vibrant use of colour. The painting seems

know about how the exhibition looked , what the rcspons('

to represent fundam ental building blocks; the sphere, the

was to the pictures. Over a meal later that eveni ng , we

cube, the pyrJ mid, a solid enactment of the diagram

talked about still life objects and tou ched on Morandi. lie

pictured on the wall. It reit-rs back to Place , a triptych

began moving the condim ents in a practical e xplanation or

painted Jive yea rs earli er, where in the left-hand panel a

positive and negative spaces , about the spau's in between

cube stands be low a drawn representation. The forms

being as concrete as the obj ects themselves . Immediatel)

inhabit the SPJCC as a proposition , suggesting a future use ,

the salt and pepper pots took on the function of Morandi 's

a lesson perhaps? There is more than a passi'ng rellTence to

vessels , the tabl e Morandi 's stage . This playfuln ess is

Durer 's Melancholia, where Durer 's earthbound angel is

appal'ent in Still L!fe with Model Boat (p. 67), painted in

surrounded by symbol s of the l-ational world. But Willing

Portugal in 1957. Here, Willing chall enges an otherwise

disturbs the stillness, adds an interj ection, a stick which

straightforward reading of a still life , by the inclu sion of J

leacl s the eye to behind th e cube, suggesting that there is

model boat, opening up the possibility o f thi s being a seascape, the boat left dry on the beach. This mu sing is endorsed by the intensity of vVilling's pale-ltc, ochre for beach, cobalt for sky. The metaphor is held in t ension, oscilbting between the imaginative ,ision and the simple recorded facts of observed ubjects upon a table. Willing was one of thuse rare artists who

WJS

Jbk to

portray images with words as well as paint. His writings are wonderfully evocative, the weight of each word and its placement testify to a poet's understanding of language. That evening around the table, Willing was able to mah' us believe in transformation.

Still Life (1961) (p. 66), a late painting by Morandi, offers a fascinating juxtaposition to Willing's Still

l.ifeI\'ilh

Model Boat. Hen' Morandi dramatically divides his canYas across the middle , the dividing line following the lip

or the

flut ed jar while scr ving to cut the bottle, its neck sliced Fig 14 Viclor W illing. Three mlo Two Won I Go. 198 2 oil on convos,

from its body, left to float like an apparition. The ohjects

250 x 250 em. blole o/Ihe ortisl

have become djsembodied in a similar way to the sail in

32

WAITING ROOMS

Willing's painting, which is left suspended, a white

PW: Yes. Both for the audience and for the artist, but

tri~nglc

against an intense blue ground. In Morandi's

particularly for the artist in the sense that you cou ld

painting, thc colour takes on an expressive vibrant quality,

th ere fore achieve things that yo u would not otherwise have

particularly unusual in his work. There is a fee ling of the

thought of.

painting being informed by watercolour, a m edium

[ was fairly ignorant of Morandi whe n I was a student

Morandi increasingly used and in which some of his most

and I wish [ hadn't be en. My work at thl' Slade (as a

radical formal experiments were conducted.

stud e nt) was very abstract and I was really involved in the whole business of creating an abstract language in painting. When I left college, which was toward th e end of the '70s, th e re was a huge cultural SC'J change happening and I

PAUL WINSTANLEY

think I was very sensitive to that . In a scnSl: I always think

Interior 10

that when MargaretThatcher won th e election in 1979 the political change absolutely coincided with the end of high

GIORGIO MORANDI

Still life 1959

modernism. The sea change was almost that abrupt.

pc: Bifore that,

if yo u

were abstract y ou were seen as being

modernist and the cuttin8 edge and then suddenly . .. ?

Like Willing, Winstanl ey also paints rooms but these are informed by and reference the gaze of th e camera.

PW: Yes. And then th e game completely changed . It was a political and cultural change. It was a schism almost. My

Paul Winstanley: My relationship to someone like Morandi entire life from the mid-50s onwards had been within this lies in the way that I see the practice of making art as very cultural framework, which ended at the end of the '70s. much an internalising proce'ss in which a perso nal and When I le ft college in '78, for two or thnT years there uni\(' rsal language is developed through a process of were huge upheavals in my work and changes. And I was simulation and rcpetition. For me, that is ve ry important. not at all sure how it was going to resolve itsel f and that And the qu c-stion of tim e relates to this because this is not took probably ten years. Then during the ' 80s I felt like a somdhing that you achieve in a mome nt. And neither did ~'lorandi,

refugee in my own country, in a strange kind of way. 1 however successful he might have become in the don't think it was just about finding my own pe rsonal

, lOs and' 40s. I think in my own practice there are certain language. I think actually it was a politi ca l and social subjects which ohsC'ss me , and to which I return, subj ects change out there in the world. alld l1loUfs which recur ovcr and over in th e work. And I look at thC'm in a different kind of way at different times

PC: Returnin8 to your work, time in your paintin8 - and the

and produce new paintings and n ew expressions of those

rension hcrll'ccn the makin8

ideas as time passes. Thi s repetition is somehow very

about aJrozen moment and th eJact that it takes weeks, months to

r('waling; it enables something to be created that wouldn't

make ~ seems a major preoccupation Jor you.

?i' a

paintin8 which is ostensibly

othcr\\'ise ex ist. PvV: Yes, this is central to the work. And also this is ofte n Paul Coldwell: Is the idea Hr) deel'er inro th e subject?

?i' repetition like a mantra in order co

rcJlected in the choice of subjC'ct matter. People regard some of the inte riors I paint as being like w aiting rooms

33

WAITING ROOMS

where time is spent; wasted even . In a way, in some of the

are in hospital corridors where you feel that the metaphor extends

works, there is this multi-levelled notion of time. And also

to a notion

if life bein8 a waitin8 room.

the sense of nothing much happening in the content of the PW: Metaphor is very important. It's a point of work, in the image. And yet there is a kind of dichotomy communication between the artist and the audience that between that and the instant frozen moments of the can be very fluid. I did a whole series called Veil. In these photographs that the painting comes from . Although this paintings there is a room with a floor-to-ceil ing window, has changed over the years hccause I now often work from which extends along all of one wall, which has a net a few photographs and because I also work digitally on the curtain covering it. And I made a whole series of paintings computer and the photograph becomes very malleable , based on this situation. In some of them there is nothing almost like clay. And I manipulate and change and create on behind the curtain, just a kind of absence or just the the computer images that sometimes don't actually exist, presence of light, just light coming into the interior and in the end, in the real world. Morandi's work is perhaps bouncing around. In others you could just make out this the most abstract looking figurative painting. I al·ways landscape. And so there is this multi-layering of surfaces in regarded myself essentially as an abstract painter working which things are distinct or less distinct or invisible, and figuratively in the way I dream the images up in the first for me that series of paintings is rich in metaphor. When I instance and then go and find something that will match the idea in the world, then come back with some evidence

am making a painting I am creating something with potential. I am not closing it down.

of that in the form of photographs. Afterwards, I turn those photographs more closely into the thing that I want

pc: Do you.find that the reality

and then create the model for that, sometimes in the

you?

if the photo8raph helps around

computer and sometimes through drawing, and finally I PW: Yes , it makes it much more . .. it is interesting actually make the painting. So that things go through all these

... Thinking about when I was making abstract paintings it

different stages. was possible to slip into something very generalised

pc: Distillin8?

whereas now...

let's say slip into something vcry

generalised in the search for something universal; but you PW:

Yes,

distilling,

stripping

down,

changing, miss it because it is not specific enough .. . whereas now I

manipulating. And in the end you have the painting. And think the imagery is incredibly specific. And somehow, the painting is not just the distillation of the time it took to ironi cally, it is therefore much, much more possible to paint but it is also the distillation of the whole thinking achieve a kind of universal in the work, or universal set oj" process from the very first dream of it. It is like dreaming values. I think you need the detail , and you need the something into its existence but then it has this physical form. And that is exactly what I was doing twenty-five

specific quality of a particular place and howt'HT you usc it or misuse it, you've got it there in the image and,

years ago at the Slade, painting these abstrac.t paintings. Although they now have tills other, richer kind of content.

eventually, in the painting. This really relates strongly to Morandi; he spent a

if Beckett about them.

lifetime painting mostly a few objects that he had in his

The ones 1found mas. poi8nant are when they looked as if they

studio and however sophisticated his studio arrangements

pc: Some

ifyour paintin8s have an

air

WAITING ROOMS

were or were not, he was able to repeatedly paint and

designed sometime in the '60s. So it ha s got a very

approach these incredibly commonplace things and create

stripped down, cleaned interior; there are no decorative

something out of that situation. It was not just universal

features and there are no personal features in this room

hut developed a sense of the un iversal over a long period

because it is in an institution. And it is shared; it is usually

of time. And that is one of the things that I really admire. I

shared by different people, but it aspires to some kind of

also admire the fact that he did not have to step outside of

lounge, because it has a few chairs and a few low tables, a

his front door to do that as well.

TV in the corner, but nothing else. And it has a beau tiful

pc: In Morandi the studi o co uld be thought

of as a laboratory of

polished wooden floor with no mats or rugs or anything and so in a way it has a quality of banality, which m akes it

iJeas and the way that ideas about the world are brought in and

incredibly valuable to me. The first tim e I used it I took a remade within the studi o in order to be interpreted through

whole set of photographs and videoed it and did various paintings. It is interesting yo u talking about photography - I know you use slides, yo u use the computer, all these kinds

rf ways

oJ.fiitering what is going on outside.

things. Back in the '90s I made a small group of paintings of the interior both in the day and at night. And then recentl y I have been back and looked at it again and the

PW: Exactly.

images coming out this time, of exactly the same room ,

PC: Basically the miff is mamifactured within the studi o ..

which has hardly changed at all, are incredibly different . And these are almost like emotional and inte llectual

PW: Absolutely, it is absolutely the same in that re spect.

changes in ...

pc: In Morandi's works t here are three main themes - stilll!fes,

pc: In you?

landscapes and th e flower compositions. Do you feel particularly close to anyon e

of those?

PW: In me, this is the interesting thing; it is not the place that changed at all, it is my response to it. Now you would

PW: To the still ]ifes in particular because they are

think using a camera to record it you would somehow

generated exclusively within the studio. You sense that the

come up with some objective truth about it. But, in fact,

still life has been put together in a particular configuration

the camera seams to act as a vehicle for a kind of hidden

for a certain reason, every choice is crucial.

subjectivity; hidden, sometimes, even from me .

pc: There is an enormous amount

of work

that happens before

pc: So yo ur paintings are vehicles

rf you

understandi ng yo ur

el'en thefirst brush mark is made.

emotional develop ment?

[,W: Yes, that is true. The painting process starts in the

PW: Yes. Or at least they are a sounding board for my

head, starts by dreaming. [ think if, for in stance, you have

emotional, intellectual , complete human developme nt,

heen painting stilllifes for thirty years , you can be so much

yes.

more particular about articulating an idea than you could PC:;: Would yo u soy that the more these rooms are stripped from

ha\'e been in the beginning. I have a favourite room that ]\-c

used for different paintings . I di scovered thi s room

sometime in the middle of the '90s, and it is in a stud ent hall of reside nce. It is a TV room in a modernist building

any specific references, the more that yo u fee l what is projected onto them or what you put in to them is coming]rom yo urfee lings?

PW: Yes. Sometimes nature gets in the way of art and you

35

MEASURED SPACES AND PASSING TIME

don't want too much of it and so you have reduce its impact slightly. 12

vVinstanley, in Interior 10 (p. 69), shows a similar concern for structure and placement as is evidenced in Morandi's Still Life (p. 68). It also shares a formal viewpoint by which

MEASURED SPACES AN PASSING TIME

the scene is presented square on, with a set of incidents laid out parallel to the horiwntal. Morandi makes a

EUAN UGLOW

conscious decision to throw the balance off centre, cutting

Still Life with Delft Jar

the tin on the right-hand sid e , rare in his overall work where the objects tend to be presented complete. This is

GIORGIO MORANDI

offset by the assertive verticals, whi ch he sets up in the

Flowers

composition, wrestling the picture back to a dynamic equilibrium. The viewer is made very aware of the rectangle (just off square) as a framing device. Winstanley

In an adjoining room in the Museo Morandi are a small

rekrences the convention of photography to fix an image

group of pictures owned by Morandi. There are a number

within the rectangle and we approach the incidents within

of Rembrandt etchings, most significantly The Ne9 ress, in

the painting - coffee table, chairs and window - formally

which Rembrandt builds up a mass of lines to create the

as be ing of equal value. This formality, along with the

dark voluptuous form of a reclining nude, an obvious

anonymity of the room, heightens our sense of di squiet,

inspiration for Morandi's intense still life etchings from the

not of menace, but of those moments where the

1930s.

environment is at odds with our anxieties (waiting rooms,

But more subtle in its influence is a small painting by

hospitals, inte rview rooms). Spaces where the re is no

Pietro Longhi (1702- 85), Donna e tol'olino con fori, which

record of accumulated experience, no evide nce of

pictures a corseted lady, little pink flowers in her hair and

previous occupation, a space severely practical, clean and

her hand poised e rotically to enter a lace muff, a little

offering no reassurance, no escape, except for perhaps the

flower in a vase on a small table to the side. Morandi rarely

tree outside .

painted the figure and in my view, when he did, they arc singularly unsuccessful. They resemble portraits on coins, stiff, invariably profile and lifeless. What is it that enables an artist to animate the most banal of objects and yet freeze when confronted with a figure? However, in Morandi's flower paintings, the flowers in their simple vases begin to take on the quality of portraits and allude to the desire to connect. Morandi throughout his life painted compositions with flowe rs, some like formal portraits where the artificial flowers are arranged in a single vase, and other, more informal paintings and prints of wild

36

MEASURED SPACES AND PASSING TIME

flowers gathered when out walking. FJowers (1950) (p. 70)

life and landscape. Still Life with Delft Jar (p. 71) is an essay

is one of the most compelling of these formal flower

in the mechanics of looking and painting. The surface of the

compositions; its stark arrangement and tightly configured

canvas is littered with reference points which reveal the

flower s contained within a simple vase scems to refer

evidence of the painting's slow evolution, each mark

back to the Longhi painting, the fluted vas(' echoing the

allowing the artist to navigate his way from the three

lady's tight bodice, while the blooms suggest the her hair

dim ension al ex per ien ce of looking towards a two

with its floral decoration. Morandi positions the vase

dimensional reconstruction on the canvas. The evidence of

completely central and isolated within space, the only

this mapping both acts as a memory of the painting's

exception being the thin shadow to the right, whieh is

history, and also leads the viewer across the surface,

offset by Morandi 's signature to the left. This is a picture of

reminding at every point that this is a fabri cation, a

intense stillness against which the fleshy pinks and free

conceit . Uglow ,vas an impor tant figure in maintaining the

working of the petals create a suggestion of erotic tensio n

tradition of life painting in colleges, teaching regularly at

and desire.

the Slade, alongside Patri ck George, William Coldstream

Euan Uglow's work is predicated on the problem of how to make an equivalent in painting to the act of seeing

and Lawrence Gowing. Daphne Todd , herself a painter and pupil of Uglow recalls:

and in that respect alone would conn ect with Morandi's Euan 's still !ifes often concentrate the simple

credo. Uglow, perhap s best known for his paintings of women, invariably nude, also worked exten sively from still

domestic forms in the centre of the field of vision, thus eliminating the perspectival problems that would arise outside a thirty degree angle. The mesmerising effect of gazing at so mething, or someone, head on is clearly epitomi sed by the work of both Giacometti and Morandi and follows through into that of Coldstream and Uglow. I do , however, re ca ll Euan pointing out that all paintings are done from memory,

Fig. 15, Pieiro long hi, Donnu e lovolrno con

{IOrl, ~.

17 80,

oil on canvas, LlO x 29 8 ern. M useo M OIDn di, Bologno

fig . 16 , Remblondl van Rijn. The Negress, 1658. coppel elchlng, 8 x 15.7 ern, usec Morand;, Boloo no

37

MEASURED SPACES AND PASSING TIME

an observation born out by the recent study

RACHEL WHITEREAD

u.ndertaken by John Tchalenko of the eye movements

Untitled (Twenty-Four Switches)

of the painter Humphrey Ocean while painting a portrait. Euan talked about distilling the image.

GIORGIO MORANDI

(It was not the only thing he distilled; some form

Still Lile, 1944

of calvados dripped from a bubbling glass demi-john at the appropriate time of each year.) He would aim

Whiteread, like Uglow, sets out to record the passing of

at reducing the number of coloured tones to the

time. Plaster, the material most associated with her, and

simplest equation, not by design, but by analysis.

the process of casting, is ideal for fixing the effects of time.

He was not clever enough, he said, to do it any

The white plaster throws up material evidence, ignoring

other way. JJ

the distraction of colour or surface pattern, to reveal the history of each surface. Her work has a rational imperative

Todd modelled for Uglow for the painting Nude; Twelve

of conveying facts: this was the space under a table, this

Vertical Positionsfrom the Eye, now in the Walker Art Gallery,

was the space in a terraced house, this was the cast of a

Liverpool, requiring eight hours posing a week over

floor. The process of casting carries through this

eighteen months, an indication of the investment required

rationalism in its planning and execution, each proposition

both from the artist and model. The still lifes, likewise,

requiring a different solution. Casting reverses facts;

required months to complete; bread would rot and need

negatives become positives, voids become solids, it's the

restoring, fruit would go off and need replacing.

world of Alice Throu8h the Lookin8 Glass where the viewer is

Still Life with Deljt Jar doggedly resists any literal

38

presented with a reflection of the familiar world.

reading; the objects seem chosen for their formal qualities

Untitled (Twenty-Four SWitches) (1998) (p. 73) is a

and a hidden geometry. While Morandi 's Flowers suggest

disarming piece, modest in comparison to the majority of

longing, Uglow's painting evokes austerity, a life in which

her work and yet contains much that is the essence of her

the intellect struggles against the flesh, where proportion,

practice. At first glance this appears as simply a bank of

placement and structure dominate the argument. In the

light switches, the kind located in any basement or

painting he refers back to ideas of the Reformation,

warehouse. But on inspection the viewer realises that

intellect being expressed

the

something is not quite as it appears, a reversal has occurred.

subjugation of pleasure and decoration. The delft jar in the

The only clues are in the screw heads, which are nO\\'

painting, whilst referencing the austerity of Dutch art, is

rendered as negatives. The fascia therefore is an impression

itself the most modest of objects, its minimal decoration

of the original, the switches that are in the on position,

the only distraction on this otherwise simple cylindrical

were off and vice versa; they have been switched. The box,

form. And in Uglow's painting, even this decoration is

however, is a positive cast, so this piece represents two

reduced and fu.nctions as a marker within the overall

casts brought together. The choice of the object is crucial

painting. Both Uglow and Morandi would have recognised

- why has it been taken out of the flow of time and its

the virtues in each other of dedication and an almost

function transformed from utilitarian to art? The object

monkish devotion to their craft at the expense of earthly

speaks of rationality, twenty-four switches (twenty-four

pleasure.

hours) the measurement of time and the control of light.

through denial and

MEASURED SPACES AND PASSING TIME

r:urthermore , in its design it speaks of organisation,

and a means to build . These drawings bear a close re

pragmatism and fun ctionality, a way of ordering the world .

semblance to Whiteread's earl y plaster sculptures leading

Finally, the object is a multiple, further placing it within

up to Gh ost, her cast of an empty room.

the realms of manufacture and the factory, rather than the studio.

In these sculptures the proccss of casting in sections becomes a formal device which reveals the logic of their

Morandi 's drawings reference these concerns with

making, and also acts as a linea r element, literally a dra\ovn

d ear evidence of positive and negative and the reversal of

grid across the sculpture. This g rid is negotiated with the

the expected. In Still Life (1944) (p. 72) the drawing is

inherent structure of each pi cC(~ , to ensure the prac

tantalisingly balanced between forms and the shapes form s

ticalities of achieving a true cast, avoiding undercuts etc.,

make when they intersect. In another still life of 1959, the

but also to divide th e space into regular blocks , giving the

group of vessels and boxes become one form, sharing a

pieces the qualities of masonr y and its reliance on the right

common outline with just the briefest of clues to suggest

angle and the vertical.

the identity of each individual object. Morandi's drawings

Both Morandi and Whiteread revisit the same motifs, as

make clear the impor tance of interval and structure in the

if drawn to the familiar as a chall enge to innovation. Fiona

constru ction of hi s paintings. There is a measured division

Bradley, who curated Whiteread's exhibition Sheddin8 Life

of the paper into interlocking blocks; it is a plan, a guide,

atTate Liverpool, said:

Fig. 17 Rochel Whllereod. Ghost, 1990. plosler o n sleel frome.

269 x 355 .5 x 3175 em. NOlional G alle ry of Arl. WashingIon

39

LOST AND FOUND

She nl-st of all seeks out something which is going to be

wants to know what the space under a staircase is

sympathetic to what she wants to do and then works

like, it is a definite, almost formalist desire to know

with it in a very particular way, to re-own it. .. And it

how it looks. H

is a way of finding out about things and how they are affected by being lived with. So she is interested in

Morandi's objects take on thi s feeling. Surfaces arc

mattrc.<,c.< because they gct dumped on the street and

rendered opaque, clue.' in terms of labels, e tc., are

they te ll you as much about the street as about the

removed, dust add ed.

person who lived with the mattress. But it is important

There is a furth er connection between these artists that

that the sense of tim e with the object is inscribed in the

bears inspection - the use of the module and sequence.

sculpture. Everyone working with casting is interested

Both are drawn to the rcpeated eleme nt: 'vVhiteread, in her

in time; it's such a time-based process.

multiple casts of spaces under a chair, celebrates both the commonality but also difference within the unit , each cast

They both use a reper toil-e of the everyday and

being a separate proposition. Togethe r, laid out either in

commonplace. They select generic forms; for Whiteread a

line or in a grid, they carry the re fe rence of the minimalist

mattress stands for all mattresses, whil e for Morandi a jug

sculptures of Judd and Andre, while investing each unit

stands for all jugs. Nowhere is this more apparent than in

with

House, Whiteread's cast of an unpresumptuous terraced

expectations that are challenged, engaging the viewer with

house in Hackney, London, made in 1993. While the

each element. Morandi, increasingly in his later work,

subject of house and hom e in art have been predominantly

made paintings using repea ted e lements, the varidy of

concerned with

the aristocracy or land e d gentry

objects in his earlier work giving way to a more limited

(Gainsborough's conl't'rsation piece Mr and Mrs Andrews,

cast - biscuit tins and boxes - painted flatly, as regular

the couple pictured in their country seat) Whiteread chose

units across the canvas. This is very apparent in the Still14c

to examine the lives of average Londoners and the space in

of 1956, one of a number of paintings where particular

which their lives are played out. The interior, now stripped

objects are reconfigured within a very tight arrangement

of colour, decoration, ornaments, becomes a structure of

and painted in simple blocks o f colour. By setting up what

interlocking grey forms revealing a rationality and form al

could appear as regimented compositions, the difference

logic. It both looked like a house and yet was the opposite,

between each unit is celebrated, pe rversely extolling their

a claustrophobic mausoleum. Fiona Bradley again observes

individuality.

particularity. Th e

regular

sequence

se ts lip

that: Suddenly Morandi see ms so contemporary . .. Firstly, She talked about wanting to fill the space up, partly to

his obsessive reworking of the same banal mo tifs has

get rid of it and partly to nnd out what it is like. J .

been seen to herald the post modernists' preference

think there is that going o n with Morandi, you find

for simulation over originality ... Secondly, and

out more about the object by looking more at the

mo re interestingly, he provides a model for an

space that surrounds it. But you also find out more

anthropomorphic, user-friendly minimalism .

about the space which surrounds it, and I think there is that actual inquiry in Rachel 's practice; she still

40

James HaJJ"

LOST AND FOUND

OST AND FOUND

comment on life . It was mainly a convenience to hang your painting on subject matter. [ suppose I looked at paintings rather th an life. And saw paintings as access to life. Well, ) used to like wine and bottles, quite familiar things. They have a timeless quality, jugs more so, perhaps. That's the

PATRICK CAULFIELD

thing that would appeal to me.

Still life: Autumn fashion PC: But yo ur work also implies, throuah the objects, a kind

social interaction. Th ese thinas are th ere because an event is takina

GIORGIO MORANDI

Still Life l

of

place, or anti cipates an event.

1946

PCa: My work is not connected speCifically with events. There is only one painting I did , which is called Th e Office While in so many of Morandi's still lifes a formal

Par ty , with bottles of wine and that is a reference to that

imperative resides over all other concems, in Still Life

sort o f phenom ena, the office party. Normall y, they are not

(1946) (p. 74) there is naturalism and relative informality

at all in any way, or they are not intended to be.

:tbout the vvay these objects are grouped, suggesting a narrative. This reading is enhanced by the way each object retains a greater sense of its individual materiality than is usual in Morandi's work. One can imagine coming across

PC: But in the series

of prints

after Lciforgue, the viewer is never

qUite sure whether he has missed the action or the action is about to happen. A nd they have this incredible stillness to them. A moment that ho vers in between .

this grouping anywhere in the world. Caulfield's paintings predominantly revolve around social interaction - eating,

PCa: There is not something brought out intentionally... it

drinking, and th e public spaces in which these occur, such

is simply the way I paint. One thing [ have consistently

as bars, ho tels and restaurants, as in Still Life: Autumn

done is to paint, m o re or less, to a sort of real life scale; I

fashion (p. 75). Caulfield imbues these situations with a

don't really go in for exaggeration of objects. So I suppose

promi se of fulfilm ent and pleasure, crafting his pictures

in that sense I would have some connection with a painter

with an intensity of colour and lighting and an overall

like Morandi.

design. However, in spite of these advertised pleasures , there is an underlying me lancholy, an absence that is

PC: The objects would become monstrous otherwise. Scale in your work is reassuring, it enables the viewer to enter the picture as a

palatable, an exquisite yearning. Ja miliar experience, otherwise there wo uld be a kind of

Paul Coldwell: Can we explore some your work and that

of Morandi?

of th e connect ions between

corifrontation. The vase or the pot stays at the size and scale that you can interact with .

The most obvious is that your

!York is very much centred on still 'life and like Morandi. your

P.Ca: Yes. Exactly.

visual vocabulary consists ~I very ordinary objects, everyday things

PC: When you do work larae,you have an architecture to suppo rt Jugs, bottles. it. So Jor exa mple, in the number

Patrick Caulfield: For me it was not really a social

of

those Joyer paintings

(Foreco urt or Entrance), the latti cework and interior details

lOST AND FOUND

ofyou

provide the framework for constructing a space that you can

feel in you r paintings that there is a sense

actually walk into.

putting yourself through th e mill to find different ways to paint,

PCa: Yes , that is intentional. Really, the interior is an

d1ferent styles. ftje els as ijyou are settingyourse!f very particular challenges in certai n areas

extension of still lifes, I mean they are interchangeable. Both have the same attitude to scale.

if time passing.

might treat the same kind of object in quite a different way from one painting to another, depending on what

In your paintings the moment is

very fixed, whereas in Morandi's there is a sense

if time

of the painting to test yourse!f

PCa: This is the right element of a learning process.

pc: )our work also seems to be concerned with the visual representation

intentionally

if accumulation

the painting is like . There are a number of different ways of painting, and quite different elements as well, landscape

within the painting, time actually passing through the

if time bifore and cifter and the paintings are somehow a series of moments, almostfilmic.

and still life combined. And different ways of painting

painting. In your work, there is sense

pieces of still life and background, which the objects were portrayed against. J actually did not quite intend

r thought of it as

PCa: The nature of Morandi's painting is that it has

to do it, but

an artist's sampler that you

indefinite boundaries and the space in which it stands is

take round to show your potential clients and say, look I

there for that reason. In the painting the images blur into

can do this in this type of style or I can do this in that kind

the space in which they are painted, which gives a feeling

of style, or whatever yo u want. A way to get a job as

of change. Whereas mine are concre te and rigid

an artist.

structures, without any ambiguity. PC: Like the old gUilds and the notion pc: And when you are beginning your paintings, do these

of the masterpiece as bein8

the piece produced in order to become a fully fledged member.

decisions about composition and arrangement occur bifore the painting starts and the act

of painting

is a confirming

of those

initial decisions?

PCa: That's right. pc: But an overriding concern seems to be the way that light can be used and described. Li8ht as both subj ect and object.

PCa: It used to be like that. I used to work very specifi ca lly, I would do a drawing and then finish that on to a canvas, so

PCa: I'm not quite sure how I embarked on this really. I did

I knew from the start what it would look like, but I don't

become more fascinated with the idea of showing things

do that any more. I also worked from life much more.

through light in a very Simplified way. When I graduall)·

pc: Was it a strange transiti on to go]rom a process that was very

stopped using the black line to divide elements, I turned to a much more traditional way with light and shade but still

planned to one that was more organiC?

trying to retain precision . PCa: In a way it is more interesting for me. It means that PC: The shapes that your lights give there are more surprises for me, more fresh perhaps, more

cd! are just as concrete as the

objects themselves. And ciften your light will cut through an object.

possibilities. The light in your paintings, the shapes

PC: Was it also a way to test yourself out with yo ur painting by

flUid elements that you can freely engage with. The light, and the

setting d1ferent challenges, trying to' translate something ]rom

shapes

what you have seen rather than something more deSigned? I always

42

of light themselves, become

of the light cast almost

overwhelm and break up theforms.

LOST AND FOUND

pc: But also th e waJ the actual paint is put on has much

PCa: I suppose that is the way I use light . pc: It takes on a phJsical characteristic that is d1ferent to th e object. It is not like liahtJallina on a table, it is as if that area

if

more to do with the waJ a fr esco is painted, there is the sense t hat the stt1J is scrubbed into the surface, th eJ are quite scratchJ paintinas.

liaht has become traniformed.

PCa: Yes, but they are all of equal, different emphasis. pc: This does contribute to a certain melancholy.

PCa: Yes, they are dry.

PC: What alwaJs interested me about the notion

if still

life

pain ti na is that the artist aets to plaJ aod, move stt1J aro und,

PCa: You feel that particular feeling of melancholy in AJter

reoraanise the wo rld.

Wo rk. You see light there comes from the least lit part of the

painting, which is out here, which is the least light; it is in reality flat grey. And also it is the least real part of painting

PCa : Morandi reuses the same objects all the time, like Cezanne, but much more so.

because the marks describing buildings are extremely

PC : He had a larae collection

cursory whil e everything else is very rigid. So I am quite

compositions aoina on around his studi O and he would paint th e

enjoying th e fact that the whole element which is so flat

actual objects as well.

if objects and

he had d1ferent

and ve r y sexually drawn, this is where the light comes PCa: Yes, that's right. I've heard about it. Painting an object

from.

before painting it mean s that you are concealing the PC: You compress that outside space. You know th e journeJ between this pot and this object in the paintina becomes a verJ

material that the object is made of. It is like som e mummified effect.

maaical Journey. And Jet this JourneJ from out th e window to i'!finitJ is almost ... 1 don't know how to put it.

PC : It is a bit perverse to denJ the essential characteristics if the obj ect in the first place.

PCa: Yes, it is trapped. PCa: A contemporary artist would paint an object like that pc: I kn ow that in Jour work Cri s and Maaritte are much more the set riferences but I do think there is somet hina very interestina ",hen JO u start seeina some

ifJ our paintinas alonaside Morandi .

InJour paintinas there is alwaJs a wall that onefinally hits. Even, asJOu said, with the cityscape outside the window in After Work, it becomes in the end flat. In Morandi's work he never really lets JO u aet too Jar away. Th e skJ almost seems to be a surface .

and that would be the work of art. It would not then be painted as a painting. The actual object painted would suffice which, I am sure , millions of contemporary artists have done or something similar. I can't remember who has do ne it but I'm sure its something you 've seen. But talking about light, in my painting Window at Niaht that is an obvious formali sation of light. It could not be

PCa: Yes, in his landscapes that space is controlled through

simpler. The painting is really about the light and nothing

tone.

else.

pc: And in a waJ JO u Journ eJ across the surface, JOu don't ao

PC: But also it is so evo cative

into the landscape.

inhabited. It is kind

pea: Yes. Like marquetry.

PCa: It has a mystery qu estion: what is happening in that

if space

that is wailina to be

if a solitary cell, isn't it?

43

LOST AND fOUND

room ? When you look at lit rooms at night from outside,

the horizon line, that all the objects will be arranged to

that sort of question crosses yo ur mind.

alternate between vessel and bowl or that a group of

pc : Th e use if colour in a way sweetens the pi/l. One would think

objects will be centred, their spo uts or handles seen straight on, concealing information abo ut the object's

with 0/1 that orange and red that there is so mething hot and

id e ntity that would be more apparent if viewed in profile. passionate going on, except one actually fee ls it is a solitary

These directives arc enough to enable the artist to re experience.

engage w ith the problem of picturing and prevent in ertia. PCa: The elements are very simpl e, the thistle in the

In the 1970s, at a time when performance art was

window ... look this plant is bare ly sur viving. Suggesting

largely predicated on spontaneity and confrontation

the stark light is only from one shaded bulb on a flex

between audience and performer, the Theatre of Mistakes

coming down .'e

developed from an alternative pro positi on than that of plann ed , scr ipted, rehearsed formal events. Jdeas taken from systems, ar ts, rules, instructions and limitations were propound ed as the containing structure in which the live

THEATRE OF MISTAKES

performance occurred, in this way refe re ncing the

Lost and Found Aren't You forgetting Something

traditional theatre as much as performan ce. In H omage to M orandi (fig. 18; p. 77) they extend the theatrical reference

by pe rforming within a proscenium arch with a deady

GIORGIO MORANDI

defined stage and fixe d position for the audience. The

Still Life, J955

performan ce is fram ed with screens at the side to conceal entrances and exi ts. The wOl-k consists of three performers

Morandi's work endorses the idea that underpins

- Anthony Howe ll, Julian Maynard Smith and Peter

modernism, nam ely that the artist, ind e pe nd ent of

Stickland - with fo ur stacking chairs, three suitcases and

patronage , engages with the central question of what it is

two wardrobes. The performance proceeds to seek o ut a

to make art . Within thi s canon , Morandi 's method was to

bewildering

rearrange his objects, revisit the same landscapes and

performer s graduall y take the place of the props,

create paintings that explored the infinite range of

becoming wardrobes, chairs and suitcases.

co mbination

of

relation ships

as

possibiliti es within a consciously narrow spectrum;

This presents a se ri es of vignettes and tabl eaux

numerou s variatio ns on particular configuration s maldng

accompanied by the occasional statement or command,

almost identi cal compositions, which by the slightest

'This will do ni cely here' , 'Now that's an arrangement' ,

alteration present a new set of formal problem s. While

'I'm fed up with this drama let's re-arrange thi s', 'Lost and

each painting is reso lved as a complete and independ ent

found' , the configuration s all endlessly rearranged ,

work there is deeper unde rstanding to be gained when

reminiscent of Morandi 's practice.

viewing a g roup of these paintings together, as a series. The

44

the

viewer becomes aware of the particular rules that Morandi

[n the performance , the metaphysics of Morandi 's

has set up in order to 'start the game'. This might be

paintings of stilllifes is transferred to the scale of

predicated by the rule, for exa mple, that no object can cut

wardrobes, chairs and suitcases. These are moved

LOST AND FOUND

through several furniture vignettes by the

fluidity of the paint, the trace of the m ovement of the

performers in Act 1. With each ensuing act, these

brush as it approaches an incident or lin e, ev ident by the

vignettes are repeated, with less and less furniture

painter's res ponse of a subtle change in direct io n . The lip

every time, the performers 'standing in ' for the

of the small, blue perfume bottle's lid inte rsects with the

furniture.

horizon, fixing it with the delicacy of a butterfl y collector Anthony Howell

l7

pinning a treas ured specimen. The small bottle is independent but joined to the white vasc which has a

In the performance, shadows are purposefully used with a

suggestion of skirts and pulled in waists; is it going too far

single strong light so urce from one side, merging figure

to read into this picture the theme of mothe r and child? It

with object to make new forms in the way that Mo randi

is not possibl e within this e xhibition to present seque nces

utilised shadows as a fluid cleme nt within his com

of Morandi 's paintings, but when seen toge the r they have

positions, the metaphysics and anxiety of de Chirico ever

the impressio n of still s from an ongoing performance. The

present within these compositions.

stage is set, the eye level fixed and a drama is conducted

Still

LUe

(1955) (p. 76) is one of Morandi's late

over many canvases. The elements of theatre, stage, light

paintings. These obj('cts have been used in a number of

and characters can all be seen in Morandi's work , with

related compositions; here it feels particularly empty as if

often a number of paintings, like a performance, cons isting

some objects are missing. It has some of the stark quality of

of the same apparent e le ments, the same bottles, the same

the flower compositions in its central placement. The first

light source , and ye t each painting is resolved as a special

impression of emptiness in the painting is tempered by a

eve nt.

feeling of fixedness. The viewer becomes aware of the

fig 18. Theatre of Mistakes, Homage iu ;\;\o!and,.

IAnthony Howell. Jullon Maynard Smlllr and Peter Stidlon d)

45

RETURN

TO LONDON

Return to London (Postscript)

to connect with so much of which is current. There is a parallel with the way in which Gwen John is now viewed

Morandi's is a perverse art masquerading as the

in the light of Augustus's prodigious talent. The quiet

conventional. Likewise the myth of Morandi as a solitary

nervous introspection in her painting and their modest

monk disguises a figure well up on contemporary practice

subject matter seems to make a more lasting impression

and engaged in the internationalism of Italian art of the

and indeed connects with Morandi's sensibility.

twentieth century. One aspect of this is to place Morandi

Artists and the public alike have a sense of discovering

as a singular figure within contemporary art, at a distance

Morandi for themselves. He is that figure on the peripher)'

from the mainstream and the cutting edge, connected to

of modern art rarely occupying centre stage. Taking the

established convention and tradition. Having established

image of the monk, his work can be seen as a lifelong

himself at the centre of the Italian avant-garde in his brief

incantation of faith in painting to articulate meaning. He

association with the Metaphysical school along with Carra

does this by severely limiting his choices, fixing on a small

and de Chirico, neither of whom were ever quite able to

aspect of reality and exploring this day after day. The vcry

surpass their early achievements, Morandi distanced

fact that he was able to withdraw into this other world in

himself and submerged himself in an exploration of

many ways allows artists to connect without feeling

perception, built upon Cezanne. Removing himself from

threatened. I have selected particular artists for this

fashion and movements (itself a Metaphysical action),

exhibition in order to highlight the connections that exist

Morandi was able to find a position that would ensure he

with aspects of Morandi's work and through this work

would never be completely out of favour.

throw light on his overall impact on British art in the latter

Morandi lived through the most turbulent century

46

half of the twentieth century.

two World Wars, the atomic bomb, the Cold War,

Through the making of the exhibition it became

technological advances and global communication - and

apparent that for each artist selected there were routes

yet, throughout this, he was able to withdraw and focus on

which could embrace many other artists; within the

a very particular quest for poetry and meaning, from the

tradition of painting from observation, Coldstream,

most banal of subject matter. He made this in opposition

Gowing and the still lifes of Stokes and Moynihan and,

to the dramatically expanded possibilities of what could

more recently, Glenn Sujo, would all connect with and

constitute art and the very materials that art could be

recognise Morandi's method and application. In the realm

made from. Despite this, Morandi's legacy has been

of sculpture, Richard Long's practice of making sculptures

growing incrementally while many other reputations have

from similar elements, formally arranged on the galler)'

fluctuated. In Britain, where there is an underlying

floor, has a clear echo in Morandi 's late arrangements,

suspicion of contemporary art, Morandi's art steals in

where the individual object becomes a unit within a larger

below our defences under the disguise of tradition.

form. Likewise, Morandi 's underlying compositional

Morandi's work ' resonates with many of the themes

structure resonates with Gormley's casts where the welds

that have preoccupied contemporary art of this century

reiterate the vertical and horizontal, fixing the figure

but, as I have argued, with a particular meaning for British

within a measured structure, and in Fiona Banner's

audiences. It is ironic that an artist who so maintained an

sculptures from punctuation marks, which are enlarged,

independence from movements and fashion should be seen

made as solids and displaced, and develop the concern

NOTES

with figuration and abstraction. The extended gaze that

Notes

Morandi's work both engages with in its making, and in the I

viewer, finds commonality in such works as Douglas

Tony Cragg, from a recordc,rl convcr::;Jlion with the author in

Cragg's studio, Wuppertal, Germany, 2005.

Gordon's 24 Hour Psycho or in Gillian Wearing's 60 Minute

I

Silence, in which a group of actors posing as policeman are

, Sarah Jackson, 'Painting the Subjcctive City' ,JMP Journal, March

2001.

filmed as a group photograph. Morandi's preoccupation with the recording of frozen time finds a counterpoint in

Richard Denvir, 'London letter ', Art International, February 1971.

, Paolo D' Ancona, Modern Italian Art, Arts Council of Great Britain (London, 1950), pp. 5-8.

many of Cornelia Parker 's works, and the suspended

, Vitale Bloch , Giorgio Morandi, Arts Council of Great Britain

animation of Marc Quinn's eerie flower pieces. The concern with positive and negative forms finds a playful

(London, 1954) . , John Berger, 'Morandi the Metaphysician of Bologna' , Art News,

connection in Martin Creed 's Work No 200, Half the Air in a Given Space, and perhaps it is not stretching the point to see in Richard Wilson's installation 20:50 a shared sense of stillness and silence. Morandi's work, while inextricably

February 1955. 7

, Russell Taylor, Sunda), Times, 6 December 1970. ') Simon Morley, 'Giorg io Morandi's Etchings', Art Monthly, March

1992.

linked to Bologna, finds a particular resonance within 10

British Art, his legacy a continuing reference for

Te rence Mullaly, Daily Telegraph, 7 December 1970.

Sue Hubbard, Time Out, 8-15 January 1992.

"Christopher Le Brun, 'Giorgio Morandi' in

contemporary artists.

J.

Munday, Giorgio

Mown"i fcchiIlH", Tate Gallery (London, 1991), Pl" 33-36.

I revisit the notes that I made during one of my first

" Me rlin James, 'Longhi's Morandi' and Paul Coldwe ll, 'The

visits to Bologna. I wrote: 'Tonight, under a Bolognese sky,

Animation of Silence' in R. Cremoncini, Giorgio Morandi:The

Colleaors' Eye, Estorick Collection (London, 200 I).

I feel drawn into these solitary silent worlds that Morandi constructs with his strange cast of bottles and jugs. In this medieval city of colonnades, overlooked by incongruous

"Brian Sewell, Evening Standard, 8 June 200 1. " John McEwe n, Daily Telegraph, 7 Jun e 2001. " Patrick Reyntiens, 'Influences on English Art in the Inte r War Years'

towers, there is both a sense of certainty and of being part

in F. Austin, On a Proeesl'

of a continuum. But looking up at the towers, some

oj Irfluence, Toby

"'angle Books (London,

1996), pp 9-10.

precariously pOised beyond the right angle, there is an

" Waldemar Januszczak, Sunday 71mes, 27 May 2001.

underlying feeling of time passing. Morandi records these

"See Yves Bonnefoy, 'Gia eomctti and Cartier-Bresson' (translated by Anthony Rudolf) in The Decision of[he Eye: Henri Cartier-Brenon

traces, the nuances of change, shifting relationships, that

AlberlO GiaeomeLti, Scalo Verlag (Zurich, 2005).

leave a mark, either physical or within the memory.'

"Richard Dorment, Daily Telegraph , 16 May 198 9. "Andrew Graham-Dixon, A History

I believe that nothing can be more abstract, more unreal, than what we actually see. We know that all

oj British An,

1996), p. 214. '" David Aaron()\"itch, 'Ashes to Ashes', The Guardian , 23 Sl'jltember

we can see of the objective world, as human beings ,

2004.

never really exists as we see ~nd understand it . Matter

"Conversation with the author in Lo ndon, 1977.

exists, of course, but has no intrinsic meaning of its

II

Ben Nichol son , in L. M. Rossi, The Later Morandi: Still Lifes

1950-1964, Mazzotta (Milan , 1998), p. 61.

own, such as the meaning we attach to it. Giorgio

BBC Books (London,

Morandi l~

"C harle" Jlanison in Ben Nicholson, Tate Galler), (London, 1969),

P 52.

47

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

,., Maurice d e Sall,marez, 'Ben Nicholson', Studio InternoLionol, 1969,

p.7 .

Dussel do rf', 1987).

» Christophc T I t' I1rull , extrnd s· fro m a conv(' r s.1tion w ith th e author,

Londnn , 2005 (~ Christopher Le Brun ).

London, 2004 (e M. Craig-Martin ond P. Coldwe ll ).

Tony

Cragg, extracts from a conversation record ed w ith the Jul hor

." Andrew Graham-])ixon, The Independent, 10 December 199 1.

10

Chirico, Metaphysical Aestheti c, 19 19.

Andre\-v Forgl' in

(;iO'.ljlO l1orondi,

Arts Counci l o f Grv.lt BriLlin

Paula Rego in F. Brarll'ey, hetor Willing, Aug ust M, ·diJ (London,

Paul Winstanl"y in conwr>ation w ith the author, London, 2004 «(C) P. Win>LJnlc;' anrl P. Culdwe ll ).

Gallc-rics (Lond o n , 2000).

Coll e ction (London, 200 I ) . Forge , A., Giowo Morundi, Arts Coun"iI of C;rCJt Uritain (London, 1970).

(Lond o n, 1999).

1996). Hockney, D ., Dovid HacknC)' by Dovid Hackney, Thal11 l's and Hudson

" Daphnc 'Ti.dd, from an email co rres po nd e nce with the author, 2005. H

Richter Ve rlag ( Du" ddo rr, 2003).

Graham-Dixon, A , A History ,!/ Rrili
2000), p. 10!. 1>

of L!fe,

Cra ig-Martin, M ., Michael Craig . Harlin Conference, Waddingto n

Gooding, M., Potrick Ca!llJield: The Complde Prints, Alan Cristea Gallery

(London, 1970), p. 7. II

Cragg, T., Tony (ru81f: Signs

Cre nl0 ncini, R ., C;/olyi o .'l/nmndi:Thc (""Jlcnors 'Eye, Lstor ick

in Wupp ertal, German)" 2005 (© Ton)' Cragg).

'9 G io r;:io de

C o rk, R . , tI-!tchael Croia -Monin: Inhole/ Exhole, Manchester Art G all ery ( London , 2002) .

,. Mi chael ( :rJig lvlartin in conve rsati o n with the author recorch-rl in

n

Cooke, L., Tony Cra8g, Arts C o uncil of Great Britain (London and

Fiona Brad le;·, extr,u:Ls from a recorded eonl'e rsation ,·v ith the

(London, 1976). James, P., Modern ltolian Art, Th e Arts Counc il o f Gn' at 13rildin (Lo ndo n, 19 50).

author, Edinhurgh, 200 5 . ,; James Hall , Jpollo, April 1992.

Ja c-bon , S., ' Painting th e Subjecti" e City' , JMP Journal, March 2001 .

" Patrick Cau lfield in con\'ersation with the autho r, London , 200 5

Lew ison, J. , Ben Nic holson, Tate Gallery (Lo nd o n , 1993).

(19 P. C aulfield & P. Coldwell).

Livingstone , M., PCilri ,k CU lllfield Puinli ni/s 1963- 8 1, Tate Ga ll ery

" Anthon y H owell, ,ee wcbsite www.anthonyhowell.org. J~

Giorgio Morandi, intervi ew, Vvi ce c:1A mcr ico, 25 April 1957.

(London, 198 1). Miraceo, R., Sti ll I 'Ie in 20th-Centu,y haly, Mazzotta (Milan, 2004). Mullins,

c.,

Ra, hclWhil cread, Tate Puhli,hing (Lond on, 2004).

Mund y, J., Giorg io Morand, Etchinas, Ta l~ Ga ll ery (London, 199 1). Purcd l, K., Gw'.q io Morandi Paintings, Paul Thi ebaud G,lI le ry and

Select Bibliography Abramow icz , J., G ' o~q'o Morund" The Arl

bggi o nato Fin e Arts (San Francisco, 2003).

of Silence,

R eid, N., Ben Nicholso n, Tate Gall ery (Londun, 1969). Yale Uni".,.,ity Rossi, L. M., The Lale.r Morandi: Slill LiJCs 1950- 1964, Mal'lot ta

Press ( Londo n a nd \:"" Ha\'e n , 200 5). Austin, F., On a Process

of In fluence, To hy Nang le Boo ks ( Lond o n,

(Mi lan , 1998). Sa lvo , D . de, Gio';'/i o Morundl. Tate Gall e ry (Londo n , 200 I ).

1996). Brandi,

c.,

SaU SI11.ln ''l ,

1\1. dc, ( Ben \: i.. "ho lson' I Sl udi o Int crnaliona J

Giorlfio Murandi 1890-/ 964, Scott ish '\ial iona l Gall e r y o r ( Lond on, 1969).

Mod e m Art (Edinburgh, 1965). S"ruta, N. , Vieto r Willina, Whi l n hapcl Art Ga ll er y (l on do n , 1986). Bown ess, A., fV,lI, am Scou: Paintings Drawinas and Gouaches I YJ8 7/, Vitali, L., tOpera Grajica di (;i oI8 io .1-1""<111'/', Finaudi (Turi n, 1964). Tat<' Gallery (London , 1972 ). Bloch'y' , Giorg'o Morandi, Arts Co uncil or Great Britain (Lond o n , 1954). Bradley, F. , V''''M IVilling , :\llgll' t M" dia (Lond o n, 2000). Braun, E ., Iloliun

/ Irl

in ,he 20l h Ccn tury , P'."est d (Munich, 1989).

C,'lJgJ1o li , P. G., (;"!rlfi" :I1or
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List of Works p. 49 Bc n Nichol so n, c. / 930- 36 (comp05illol1 : slill/ife) Oil on can"as, 50.5 x 76

CIll,

Ahhot Hall Art Gall ery, Kenda l, Cumbria

p.64 Gi orgiO Morandi, Slilll ifein Broad Strokes, J 931 Etching, 24 .7 x 34.2 em, The Brili,h Museum, Lond o n

p. 50 Gi orgi o Morandi, Landscape, 1962

p.65 Paul Coldwel l, Pestle &'MorLVr, 1999

O il o n canV<1S, 25 .5 x 1 1 em , LIni eredit C:u ll ~ c ti u n, Mi lan

Dur st Lambda print , 4 5 x 55 em, Pri"ate co ll ection

p. 5 1 Be n r'>i ichniso n, .1·larch / 962 (: Iroo,)

p.66 Giorg io Morandi, SLilil !Je, 196 1

Oil o n carved board , 35 x 44 ern , Kellle \ YJrd , Uni" c rsity of Cambridge

Oil o n canvas, 30 x 35 em, Pri" ate' co ll ecti o n

/iF lI'ilh Model Baal,

1957

p. 52 (above') Giorg io Morandi, LandsCQ pe, undated

p. 67 Vin o r Willing , Sli/l

Pe nci l on !,"pc r, 22 x 31.5 em, Esto ri r k Co ll ecti on, LondclO

Oil on ca nvas, 53 x 93 em, E, tate o f th e arti st

p. 52 (1)l'low) Gi ol'g io Morandi, / " ndscape, 1942

p.68 GiorgiO Morandi, Slill

Pe ncil on papeT, 14 x 32.4 em, Estori ck Co lk cLi o n, Lo nd on

Oil on canva" 25 x 30 . 5 em, Accari cmia Carra ra, Galkria d' Arte

p. '») Chri stop her Lc Brun, C/OII.! on ,I'/rcc , 19:56 Oi l on can vas, 18 3 x 1') 2 .5 em , Pr ivate co lketi o n p. 54 Gio rgio Mo randi, Slill L!I" wllh BOIl /es, 1942

Lifo , 195 9

Mode rna e Contemporanea, Ber ga mo

p. 69 Paul Winstanley, Inleri or 10 , 2004 Oil o n line n , 80 x 65 em , Co ll ecti on o f the arti st

Oil o n cam',,,, 31.6 x 46 em , Pri ' Jtl' co lketio n

p, 70 Gio rg io Morandi, Flowers, 19 50

On loan to Nati o nal Mu se ums and Galle ri es o f\Na le,

Oi l on ca n"as, 36 x 30 em , Musco Mo randi, Bo logna

p. 55 Mi chae l C raig-'vl artin , Still Un c, 200 5

p. 71 Euan Uglow, SUII L!Je IVllh Delft jar, 1958

Acry li c on aluminium, 121.9 x 182 .9 em, CO llrll's), of the artist

Oil on cam'", 6 1 x 51 e m, Arts Co un cil Co llec ti on , Hayward Ga ll e n ',

and Gago"an (;all c ry

South Bank Ce ntre, LonJon

p.56 Gi u rg io :\'Io ranrli, Sl ill

uF, 19 56

O il on canvas, 35 x 45 em, Pri'",l l l' co ll ecti on p. 57 Willi am Sn'Jtt, Gre) Sl ill

UJc,

1969

L!fe , 1944

Penci l on paper, 22 .4 x 31 ,6 em, Estori c k Co llecti on , London p. 73 Rac hel Whitc read , Untitled ( Ti"' nt)'- f'O il1 SWitches), 1998 Cast alum inium , 26 ,3 x 20 .3 x 6 em

O il on call vas , l oR x 172

Gill

Scott ish Nat ion;, 1 (; ~,Ikr;'

or Mode rn Art , Edinburgh

p. 58 Giorg io .\·Ioran"i , Slill

p. 72 Gi org io Mo r"mli , Slill

L!fc, 1962

Pri vat e co ll ection , on loan to Sco ttish Natio nal Gall e n-

or Mocl e rn Art ,

Eclinburgh

Oil on «'11\'3' , 30. 5 x 30. 6 em

p.74 Giorg iO Mo rancii, SIIIIl.1;' , 1946

Scot I i ~ h Na ti o nal Gall cry of Modcrn Art, bJillburgh

O il on cal1\'as, 30 x 35 em, Mus('o /vlorJndi, Bo logna

p. 59 To ny Cragg, F.urlj forllls, 1993

p.75 Patr ic k C"lIIi iei ci, SLiIl Lifc:A ulUmn Fashi on , 1978

Bronze, 7 5 x 110 x 225 ('m, Pri"ate colkcti o n

Ac rylic o n cam'J ~ , 61 x 7 6, 2 e m, Nation,,1 Muse ums Live rpoo l, Walk er

p,60 Giorgio Ivlo ra mli, Sal"ena Landscal'e , 1929 Etching , 25 .5 x 24 .5 em, Eslorick Co ll ectio n, London p.6 1 David I loc kn ey, 'A lI'ondcd Lan,/scape' , fro m IIllIslrations}" Six r", ry

Art Gall cry p, 7 6 Giorg io Mo randi, SLiIi

L!fe, 1955

O il nn cam'as , 35 ,6 x 40 .5 em, Private co llecti on

'/(,/esIrom Ihe Brolhers Grimm, 1969 '

p. 77 (aho"e ) Pe te r Sti ckland, LOSl and Found, draWing for Nomal7e

Et ching , 34.2 x 20 ,5 em , Marco Li"ingstoll('

,I/ora nd" 1979

p. 62 Gio rg io Mor;\ndi, La/1(hcape

01

Grilla na , 1932

Etc' hing, 20 x 18 em, JOsro ri c k Collection, I onJ o n p.63 Da"id Hoc kn l';', 'Th e Naulllcd C
f rom Ihe Brolhers Grimm , 1969

t.tch ing, 34 .2

18

X

20 ,5 em , Marco Liv ingsto ne

10

Pencil on pape r, 29.6 x 2 1 e m , The Theatre o f Mi stakes, Private co lJ. 'l'lion p. 77 (below) Pe te r Stic kland , Aren 'l You.for8clllna SOl1lelhill.q ' , dr"wing lo r f/omC/o"

10

Mora ne" , 1979

Pe ncil on pape r, 29 .6 x 2 I em, Th e Thea tre o f Mistake·" Pri ,·"te co lleci ion