My opinions of abstract art aside for a moment, I've been reminded how insanely huge these paintings are. And the memories start to churn...
Even with Art College 40 years in the rearview mirror, I still get a twitch in my left eye on this topic. Our painting professor's personal work definitely ran to abstract works. With this apparently in mind, he mandated that the minimum size of any painting we created was 4 feet x 4 feet.
This worked fine for abstract painters. The majority of my classmates were only in the Art College department because their Mommy & Daddy insisted with an iron hand they attend college. These kids jumped into art very much as the lesser of evils. Any creative passion was faint, if extant at all. To them, dropping paint balloons from a stepladder on to a canvas to make "art" was easy fun. 8' x 4' sizes granted these glorified play school doodles faux gravitas.Meanwhile, the handful of us who had a yearning towards more representational painting were a beleaguered minority, struggling to fill 16 square feet or more with recognizable details. It made for LONG, exhausting hours. We essentially taught ourselves while the professor and his abstract disciples flung paint at each other.
One of my time travel fantasies is to go back to that college and coach my novice young self to have firm, diplomatic conversations with the professor, insisting on equal time and consideration for my artistic vision/needs.
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