Hear Brice Marden expressing his views on the creative process of painting
Hear Brice Marden expressing his views on the creative process of painting
Brice Marden painting and discussing his views on the creative process, from the documentary Brice Marden (1977).
Checkerboard Film Foundation (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Transcript
BRICE MARDEN: A lot of my attitudes have had to do with defending the idea of painting, just painting itself, which has been under attack. Everyone keeps saying it's dead. Painting isn't dead. It's exactly the same way it was when they painted on the caves--no different at all, just colored dirt on a ground.
[Music in]
My reasons for going into studying painting were very romantic and very off the wall, all about the bohemians and Greenwich Village and--but then you get involved, and that--that all changes. But at the same time you're living that kind of life. I mean, artists are all crazy. I wouldn't trust a painter unless I thought he was crazy in some way--he or she. And it always shows in the work. You're operating in a gap, know--you know, and you have to stay in that gap. You can't get too involved with one thing, you can't get too involved in another thing. You're a painter. You have to just be able to look at things. You're a philosopher; you're a mystic; you're a priest; you're a journeyman, a craftsman. We represent our tradition. The painter's tradition dates back 30,000 years.
[Music out]
[Music in]
My reasons for going into studying painting were very romantic and very off the wall, all about the bohemians and Greenwich Village and--but then you get involved, and that--that all changes. But at the same time you're living that kind of life. I mean, artists are all crazy. I wouldn't trust a painter unless I thought he was crazy in some way--he or she. And it always shows in the work. You're operating in a gap, know--you know, and you have to stay in that gap. You can't get too involved with one thing, you can't get too involved in another thing. You're a painter. You have to just be able to look at things. You're a philosopher; you're a mystic; you're a priest; you're a journeyman, a craftsman. We represent our tradition. The painter's tradition dates back 30,000 years.
[Music out]