NO RULES?

What is it about artists that make them want to boast that they never use a ruler? - see: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/mondrian-evolution-curator-interview-2140733. Francis Bacon spoke boldly of never sketching, or planning a painting; but there is a T-square in his studio – see: https://voussoirs.blogspot.com/2013/01/bacons-sacrambled-studio-francis.html; and the gallery was selling postcards that showed construction lines to order a sketched composition. One assumes that the T-square was not in his studio for decoration, given the ‘creative’ shambles that it was – now ‘is,’ having been relocated to the Dublin City Gallery.

Piet Mondrian

Now we read that Mondrian, of all artists, never used a ruler. Did he use a set square instead? It is truly difficult to believe that the precision achieved in his later paintings was the outcome of the eye and the hand alone. Is the reference to his earlier works?

As an exercise, we have scaled up some of Mondrian’s later ‘primary colour and grid’ paintings to make patchwork cushions. It seemed to be not too much of an insult given the classic Yves Saint Laurent dress that has been so influential in using and promoting this style. During this replication process that one wants to get as accurate as possible, one is always astonished by the subtlety of the measurement and the variations that fit easily into Imperial patchwork measurements. Might all of this really have been achieved freehand? If not a ruler, then what? Masking tape! A straight edge? Is the report being just too pedantic?

Why is it so important? Are artists trying to match the skill of Giotto and his ‘O’ – Oh!? One could ask: does it matter? Does knowing this statement about the skill of the eye and hand of the artist make any difference to the work other than offer a talking-point diversion - an irrelevance that can become an intellectual matter for discussion by way of a deviation from the sense of the work itself?

Francis Bacon

What might Mondrian say? Bacon is on record as saying that he never planned or sketched, but . . . ! Do all artists create their own mystique? Here one thinks of Lucien Freud and his sexual entanglements. Are we becoming too involved in personalities instead of concentrating only on the work. One will soon be asking whether an artist is left-handed or right-handed; short or tall; blue-eyed or brown? etc.

It seems to be a problem with today’s cult of the individual, that one has to be involved with personalities before making judgements, turning art into true ‘self-expression’ where the weird outcomes need supporting, unique lifestyles with quirky habits just to prove the point.

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