What painting is

285 Pages·2019·35.407 MB·English

by  James Elkins

W h a t P a i n t i n g I s
In this classic text, James Elkins communicates the experience of
painting beyond the traditional vocabulary of art history. Alchemy
provides a strange language to explore what it is a painter really
does in the studio––the smells, the mess, the struggle to control
the uncontrollable, the special knowledge only painters hold of
how colors will mix, and how they will look. Written from the
perspective of a painter-turned-art historian, this anniversary edi-
tion includes a new introduction and preface by Elkins in which
he further reflects on the experience of painting and its role in the
study of art today.
James Elkins is Professor of Art History, Theory, and Criticism
at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is the author of
many books, including How to Use Your Eyes, What Photography
Is, Visual Literacy, and Visual Studies: A Skeptical Introduction,
among other titles.
i

W h a t P a i n t i n g I s
Second Edition
Ja m e s E l k i n s
This edition published 2019
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2019 Taylor & Francis
The right of James Elkins to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent
to infringe.
First edition published 1999 by Routledge
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog request has been made for this title
ISBN: 978-1-138-31989-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-31988-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-45370-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by codeMantra
Contents
Preface
ix
Introduction
1
1. A short course in forgetting chemistry
9
2. How to count in oil and stone
40
3. The mouldy materia prima
68
4. How do substances occupy the mind?
96
5. Coagulating, cohobating, macerating, reverberating
117
6. The studio as a kind of psychosis
147
7. Steplessness
168
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vi What Painting Is
8. The beautiful reddish light of the philosopher’s stone
181
9. Last words
192
Notes 201 Index 233
vi
Color Plates
1 Sassetta, Madonna and Child, detail. c. 1435. National
Gallery of Art, Washington.
2 Claude Monet, Artist’s Garden at Vetheuil, detail. 1880.
National Gallery of Art, Washington.
3 Jean Dubuffet, The Ceremonious One, detail of left flank.
1954. National Gallery of Art, Washington. © 2018 Artists
Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
4 Alessandro Magnasco, Christ at the Sea of Galilee, detail.
c. 1740. National Gallery of Art, Washington.
5 Jackson Pollock, No. 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist), detail of
lower left center. National Gallery of Art, Washington.
© 2018 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation / Artists Rights
Society (ARS), New York.
6 Claude Monet, Rouen, West Façade, Sunlight, detail of
clock. 1894. National Gallery of Art, Washington.
7 Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-Portrait, detail. 1659. National
Gallery of Art, Washington.
8 Emil Nolde, Autumn Sea XVIII, entire. 1911. Stiftung Ada
und Emil Nolde, Seebüll, Germany.
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viii What Painting Is
9 Francis Bacon, Triptych Inspired by T.S. Eliot’s Poem
“Sweeney Agonistes,” detail of central canvas. 1967.
Hirshhorn Museum, Washington. © The Estate of Francis
Bacon. All rights reserved. / DACS, London / ARS, NY 2018.
10 Cross section of paint from Cima da Conegliano, The
Incredulity of St. Thomas. National Gallery, London, no.
816. Photomicrograph courtesy of Ashok Roy.
11 Titian, Venus with a Mirror, detail. c. 1555. National
Gallery of Art, Washington.
12 Mosaic gold.
13 Christ and a phoenix, from Heinrich Khunrath,
Amphitheatrum sapientiae aeternae (Hamburg: s.n., 1595).
Hand-colored copy, with gold and silver paint, in the
Duveen collection. Courtesy of University of Wisconsin,
Madison.
14 Jacopo Tintoretto, The Worship of the Golden Calf, detail.
c. 1560. National Gallery of Art, Washington.
15 Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, View Near Epernon, detail.
1850–60. National Gallery of Art, Washington.
16 Jean Dubuffet, The Ceremonious One. 1954. © The Estate
of Jean Dubuffet. Photo (C) Centre Pompidou, MNAM-
CCI, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Bertrand Prévost.
17 Jackson Pollock, No. 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist). © 2018
The Pollock-Krasner Foundation / Artists Rights Society
(ARS), New York. Photo © The National Gallery.
18 Francis Bacon, Triptych Inspired by T.S. Eliot’s Poem
“Sweeney Agonistes.” 1967. © The Estate of Francis
Bacon. All rights reserved, DACS/Artimage 2018. Photo:
Hugo Maertens.
viii
Preface
Looking As Closely As Possible
This isn’t an ordinary book on painting. There’s a lot to be said,
and perhaps also excused, about this book’s sometimes wildly id-
iosyncratic uses of alchemy and premodern natural history. I might
also apologize for my tendency to treat oil painting, from Sassetta
to Auerbach, as a single subject, or for the book’s disregard of pol-
itics, society, and culture, or even its reliance on primary sources
rather than the recent literature on early chemistry.
The only excuse for those omissions is that I was trying as best
I could to write about the experience of the studio before history,
criticism, and theory, before paintings become public objects, be-
fore they’re labeled and sold. I was attempting to find a language
for the love painters feel for paint itself. I still think the painted
surface is what’s central to painting: otherwise it’s just a medium
for messages that happen in ordinary language—and I hope that
everyone who loves painting hopes that’s not true.
I am aware that the book’s staying power—it’s been in print
now for twenty years—has a lot to do with its appeal to painters
who feel isolated from academic concerns and would like to ar-
ticulate the experience of working alone in the studio. I still think
that it’s fundamentally important for academic writers to think se-
riously about what it might be like to go into the studio every day,
year after year, without a clear idea about what might be accom-
plished, without the solace of the many concepts, theories, and
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