Tal R Interview: Painting is like Free Falling
I’ve recently discovered Tal R, and find his work some of the best being done today. It is certainly reminiscent of Matisse, but not to the point of being derivative. I love how easy he makes it all look. And he turns out to also have a fantastic repertoire of thoughts on the process of picture making. Below are some excerpts from this video.
First of all, the worst thing you can do - unless you’re Buddha or Jesus, which few of us are - is to stand in front of a blank canvas and just feel and do. If you do that, the result will be very predictable - because you will tap into what comes naturally to you. You must have something in your pocket, some idea of what you want to do. It’s like going to a silver anniversary. Don’t bring a finished speech. Know what you want to say, but don’t prepare how to say it.
Painting is like free-falling with the idea in your pocket. The painting should unwrap that idea in a way you didn’t see coming. The rush of it is the debate you have with yourself. You unwrap something by posing questions. You don’t have an idea that you want to carry out. I’d never have become an artist then. I love it because it’s the most challenging thing I know. It’s where I utilize most of my skills and take the best plunge.
When you set out to do a painting by thinking about the colors - then you’ve already gone astray. Much of what you do should be predetermined. 50% should be predetermined. There must be a need for the painting. The painting has certain needs, it wants certain colors and shapes. …The more requirements a painting has, the harder it is to paint. It’s what breaks young artists every time, all their ideas. The process of painting is confronting all those ideas.
Your idea is to place the objects like this. When you begin, it all comes apart. You have to develop a new language, new shapes and ideas, because your idea is overruled by the things that have to fall into place. They lie behind your idea of how to go about it. But at the end of the day, I don’t care. I just want the painting to work out.
Sometimes you remember things and… It’s like a catchy tune. You look ahead and do a variant. And whenever it turns around and spits you in the face, you’re happy. You want to lose yourself. It’s more fun to create something you hadn’t seen coming, yet you want to stay within the framework. You have an idea of what you want to say, but you don’t know how.
You’ve also gone astray if you crave the struggle. Then you’re an idiot. If you crave the struggle, the struggle becomes your idea, your challenge. This is the right mindset: I need to say something, plunge myself into it. You have to say: I don’t want to struggle; I want to deliver. I want my idea to unfold. But your training, your instrument offers resistance.
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