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01/07/2005: "Lost in a Labyrinth"
Yesterday I wanted to finish one of the large paintings that I am preparing for the exhibition for the CSAC in Parma (Center Studies and Archive for Comunication, Parma University). I hadn't worked on this painting, which I considered to be almost complete, for a long time. However, I had decided to touch up some of the colours and define some details on the figures more clearly, since I had left them too vague.
The painting is 160 x 160 cm. The subject is a woman asleep beside a telephone. Since the painting seemed to be rather good, perhaps the best that I have made in the last few months, I tried to be very careful not to make any alterations that would have upset the balance of the image. I seemed to be progressing quite well in the task of putting the finishing touches to the work, making sure that I recreated the colours and hues accurately, so that it wouldn't be noticeable that the painting had been retouched.
Unfortunately, I had forgotten that caution is the skill that comes most unnaturally to me. I lose so many of my qualities as a painter, if I don't paint as though I was in the middle of a risky adventure In a very short time I was lost in a labyrinth, and couldn't find the way out. I had to be more courageous. I abandoned my excessive prudence and tried to recuperate my more natural style to get to the end. Too late. The large painting was already jeopardised and my insistence in wanting to carry on painting had only produced a progressive ruining of the image. At seven in the evening, feeling awful, I reluctantly decided to stop. My beautiful painting no longer existed.
Alberto Sughi
Rome
Alberto Sughi was born in Cesena in 1928 but has been living in Rome for many years. One of the maior Italian artists Sughi is considered to be the leading exponent of the figurative pictorial era in which "Existential Realism" was spoken about.
(For more info on Alberto Sughi see: www.albertosughi.com)
Replies: 13 Comments
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In my work, I aim to keep the energy in the painting alive. After many years of reflecting as to when to stop working on a painting before I kill it, I came to this conclusion: " It is better for a painting to be unfinished than dead"!
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on Monday, January 10th, alek said
surely the point of all this is the process and not the finished product, that being simply a means by which we can maintain ourselves. That being said the process whether good or bad in its result is the step onto the next process, which if one is to progress from the previous one, is not dependent on the outcome. I see mr King has highlighted the value of process.
And this process should have nothing to do with humility, or ego, it merely is. The finished product
is affected by the nonsense of audience, albeit required. process is pure Mr Sughi has shared a part of it, he should with his age and experience
see himself as free of the result even if it dissappointed him. I'm sure he has merely in the sharing.
on Monday, January 10th, Luca - Pandemia said
What about a RSS feed for the blog?
on Sunday, January 9th, jose freitas cruz said
I had sworn to myself I wouldn’t waste my time doing this… but
Mr.Jubman, believe it or not we are all full of ourselves, if not of ourselves who else would we be full of and would it then be worth coming forth as artists? We are artists for heaven’s sake, what we bring forth is full of ourselves: higher ideas pass through us and become tinged and that is what an artist’s work is about - or might you perhaps be some ethereal angel through which impressions might reach us in essence? Mr. Sughi may seem full of himself to you but he is nevertheless voicing a true concern that afflicts most of us artists who remain common mortals - i daresay a concern that probably even haunts the gods and the angels!
I read somewhere in these blogs words to the effect that the internet provides a forum for the democratic expression of ideas implying that whoever voices one should expect to hear contradictory views. I am all for that and agree that it ought to be so. There is however a terrible misunderstanding of what democracy really is. Unfortunately, more often than not, what we really witness is shameless [faceless] anarchy – the expression of contradicting views for contradiction’s sake, with no valuable input and no true desire for constructive dialogue. True democracy presupposes educated contributions to the dialogue by responsible participants willing to share valuable insights and help set in place better conditions than the ones presently in place.
Mr. Sughi writes in his own name and has the courage to express his views and innermost feelings. Like a true artist he exposes himself. I believe that anyone contributing with commentaries to these blogs should at least have the decency and forthrightness not to hide behind a pseudonym – and as Walter King has earlier suggested, provide us with a link to personal information about him/herself.
on Sunday, January 9th, Walter King said
Jubman,
This is an old bias that is dying. Thank God. I take offense to the idea that somehow Illustration is a lower artform than...well than what? Anyone who has developed themselves and their vision to a high form is making art. I can find just as much trash in the world of fine arts as in the world of illustration. Mr. Sughi has made a lifetime of images. I suppose you have the right not to like them--maybe because they are figurative, or narrative. But if you're going to dis them I think there should be some comparison made as to what you think is a higher art. Short of that it's just a cheap shot.
on Sunday, January 9th, jubman said
Maestro Sughi
You are too full of yourself! You would be better working on those illustrations you are trying to palm off as art before you start your new efforts as a blogger.
on Friday, January 7th, Karen Lastre said
This is so very interesting in that not more than a couple of weeks ago I was in the same dilema in that I kept working on a piece that I felt, at the time, should be shoved in the attic or put in the trash. I have learned, over the years, not to give up but to do as Walter stated, "take a break.....". I knew that I had to keep on going and when I finished, the piece looked nothing like what I started with. It was so much better, and like you said about the piece before you worked on it again; perhaps the best you had done to date. So if you felt that way then, think of how you will feel when you finally decide it is finished; even if it is not at all what you had originally envisioned.
Besides, what really could happen if it turns out not to your liking? Does that mean you are not the artist you are, who who you feel you are? No! it only means that you are human, besides being a really good artist!
Smile,
Karen Lastre
on Friday, January 7th, Mike Fornadley said
Been there, done that, one of the grand truths for an artist is to know when to quit on a piece. Don't know if anybody else had this happen, work on a piece thinking you are progressing nicely, only for the next day when you totally change your opinion. Believing that artists see day to day, maybe hour to hour in different ways. In college, had a problem with continuing on with a figure study from class to class, solution was to smash in one at each setting. Each of us works off a different temperment, that is why art is exciting, a unique product created by an one of a kind individual.
Maybe you can still save the piece, take a break and get a good try at it. I have killed many a fine painting by working into it, most times I can get a pulse back into it, sometimes they are flat lined and bound for a scraping. Hope for the best on your patient.
on Friday, January 7th, Walter King said
Maestro Sughi,
I think it is the sign of a great painter to know humility brought on by ones own overreaching. I am familiar with your work. I think I have seen a piece in the Museum in Budapest and as well have seen other works in magazines over the years. It is very interesting to hear your journal of the process. The idea that one must to some extent fling caution to the wind at some point in the process is important I think. Even if it means the temperary loss of a fine image. But you and I both know that destroying an image and regaining it are the hallmark of a great painter.
I often explain to my students that to quit after overworking, or wrecking an image in progress is premateur. That after the loss one must re-define a way, re-trace or even continue the process of loss and find a way to bring either the old or a new solution to the piece. That scraping out whole passages and after redrawing the solution sometimes appears in the remains. Sometimes my own best work is the result of not giving up after destroying an image I felt good about.
By the way...do you know the work of Carlos Alonzo from Argentina? I am also very moved by his figurative images. I met one of his students in Cordoba last summer.
Walter King
