Up Close & Far Away

I like “Art Juice,” an art podcast from Great Britain. Last week one of its hosts, Louise Fletcher, gave a great description of my “up close and far away” thoughts because she’d had the same experience I’d had at the MoMA with the Jasper Johns painting “Flag.” From a few feet away, yes, it’s a flag, but only when you get up close do you see the white stripes actually hold collaged bits of newspaper. All that news and opinion make up the flag, and that gives it so much more meaning, not to mention something to get lost in when you’re studying it from up close.

I think a good abstract piece should have motion, color and a statement for you to enjoy from across a room, but also treasures to find in it when you’re only a few inches away.

From far away you’ll see things like a directional sweep of elements: downward, upward, left-to-right. You’ll see a dominant color or a good interplay of color or maybe some unexpected color statement. You should feel the painting’s presence. But that shouldn’t be the end of the experience.

Go closer. Can you see patterns or smaller compositions within the major composition? You might find an interplay of textures or tiny, detailed marks leading you from one spot to another. Layers may play hide and seek up close, so you see what’s under the surface. I think there should be enough going on to keep you looking for a little while. What made the marks? Are the brushstrokes a certain direction or wild and swashbuckling? 

Then, how do the up-close and far away relate to each other?

There are plenty of YouTube videos that show how to make an abstract painting in ten minutes. The truth is, when an abstract painter gets good, paintings take days, weeks, months. It’s not slap-dash sloshing of paint and calling it done. It’s constructing an emotion. It’s building a treasure by hand — unrepeatable — for you to take home and look at, up close and far away, for years.

Jasper Johns’ “Flag”