Althouse: The accidental abstract expressionism of an unfinished paint job.

January 11, 2023

The accidental abstract expressionism of an unfinished paint job.

Aesthetically pleasing incompleteness.

21 comments:

RideSpaceMountain said...: Just look at what Bolsanaro supporters have done to the inside of the Federal Judiciary! What? That's just post-modern abstract impressionism? They didn't touch it? Well...OK then.; 1/11/23, 6:49 AM
Enigma said...: Mark Rotko turned that exact style into millions and million and millions of dollars:

https://www.wikiart.org/en/mark-rothko

That era of artsy-fartsy pretentiousness was satirized by Kurt Vonnegut in Bluebeard (1987):

His most famous, which once hung in the lobby of GEFFCo headquarters on Park Avenue, is titled "Windsor Blue Number Seventeen." The entire painting consisting of eight 8×8 panels hung side by side displays nothing but the paint by Sateen Dura-Luxe in the shade of the title of the work. However, the painting literally fell apart when the Sateen Dura-Luxe began to shred itself from the canvas upon which it was painted becoming Rabo Karabekian's biggest embarrassment as an abstract expressionist. These very panels upon which Windsor Blue used to cover fully became the canvases Karabekian would prime back to pure white and use for his last work locked within his potato barn.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluebeard_(Vonnegut_novel); 1/11/23, 6:56 AM
Ann Althouse said...: There is (or was) a Flickr group "Accidental Rothko." I used to add the tag to some of my photos. Happens a lot with the sunrise.; 1/11/23, 7:03 AM
Owen said...: I could sit and stare at that in reverential meditative silence for DAYS, man.; 1/11/23, 7:20 AM
Leland said...: They’ll just paint over it and ruin it.; 1/11/23, 7:54 AM
Kit Carson said...: Rothko-esque; 1/11/23, 8:07 AM
cf said...: Yes, I can relate. I left my delightfully-tested master bedrooms walls as they were for a few months, because they delighted me so.; 1/11/23, 8:12 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "They’ll just paint over it and ruin it."

It's not a "they" situation. It's a "we."; 1/11/23, 8:35 AM
Lurker21 said...: Wabi-sabi.; 1/11/23, 9:01 AM
tcrosse said...: Just throw a can of Chef Boyardee Spaghetti-Os at it to protest climate change.; 1/11/23, 9:01 AM
Meade said...: “Wabi-Sabi”

Yes—“nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect” is what I tell myself every time I smudge, drip or paint a crooked line. It’s wabi. And if if it isn’t wabi, it’s sabi!; 1/11/23, 9:17 AM
Charlie said...: Leave it as is......it'll be a great conversation starter.; 1/11/23, 9:20 AM
mezzrow said...: Rothko?

*checks comments, posts anyway*; 1/11/23, 9:34 AM
Drago said...: Hunter Biden just sold that unfinished wall for $500,000 to a Chinese art "investor".; 1/11/23, 9:39 AM
TaeJohnDo said...: Are you sure it isn't hanging upside down?; 1/11/23, 9:51 AM
Meade said...: “ Leave it as is......it'll be a great conversation starter.”

Haha. Afraid that’ll be the conversation that has no end.; 1/11/23, 10:31 AM
mikee said...: In college I got a poster for an abstract art exhibit and took it back to the dorm and hung it on my wall. I asked my roomie what he thought of it, and he looked at it for a long 10 seconds and replied, "This produces no thoughts in my mind." Best analysis I've ever heard for the genre. And he did a lot of drugs, so he knew what he was talking about.

I currently have two excellent professional house painters on their 3rd day of "blue tape" corrections to the walls, doors, shelves and trim in a new construction house. They've been fixing drips, gouges, smears, texture mistakes, oversprays, and so on, for each and every wall section in this two story, four bedroom house. Before they started the house paint was acceptable. Now the rooms they have completed have changed from OK to WOW. Think Morty's reaction to the perfectly flat surface. Now, THAT is painting.; 1/11/23, 11:51 AM
Nobody said...: Meh...name it "under construction" or nothing to see here.; 1/11/23, 12:26 PM
Old and slow said...: Every out of work tradesman calls himself a painter when the need arises. Very few actually are any good at it. This is not a dig at Meade, just an observation.; 1/11/23, 2:33 PM
gadfly said...: Drago said...
Hunter Biden just sold that unfinished wall for $500,000 to a Chinese art "investor".

Selling paintings is above-board legal. Critic Professor Jeffry Cudlin opines: “Everyone should try pushing brushes around. And if someone wants to pay you a half-million for the results: Cash that check.”

Art dealer Georges Berges sells Hunter Biden paintings from his SoHo, NY Gallery. Sylvester Stallone, Paul McCartney, and Ronnie Woods of the Stones have displayed their art with Berges.; 1/11/23, 2:41 PM
Drago said...: gadfly: "Selling paintings is above-board legal."

LOL; 1/11/23, 3:48 PM