The article that interested me the most in the ArtForum collection was Depth Charge with Terry Winters and John Elerfield. It’s curious to me the idea of combining “the decorative flatness of modernist painting and something messier and more volumetric.” I’m intrigued by the sense of depth in De Kooning’s work – the push and pull between figure and ground, front and back, in and out. Working directly from the figure our in class, it’s all the more interesting to read about De Kooning’s work, who was known to begin with the figure, and yet develop, delineate and re-appropriate to the point of abstractions with such a visceral surface. The conversation refers to the work Excavation several times throughout, and even thought this work was viewed as somewhat of a peak of discovery, I believe a body of work is evolutionary and nonlinear, and that it’s constantly changing and innovating ideas and techniques.
All content sighted is derived from Depth Charge by Josh Smith, Terry Winters and John Elderfield, part of a collection from ARTFORUM entitled Acting Out: The Ab-Ex Effect
Kal L. Cloonan 