We see that javascript is disabled or not supported by your browser - javascript is needed for important actions on the site. Read more

What's New - Home - Login

Member $avings: $81,574,531.34 | Books Available: 794,905 | Members Online: 210

Swap Used Books - Buy New Books at Great Prices!

How To Swap Books Sign Up Search submenu

PBS Market (New Books)

Gift Buying Guide

Book Browser Advanced Search Books Posted Today Member Book Reviews Award Winning Books NYT Best Sellers Amazon Best Sellers Most Traveled Copies Club Wish List

Discussion Forums Book Lists

Club Lists My Book Lists My Watched Lists Create a List

Blog Donations

School Donation Program In Memory of... Military Donation Program Friends of PBS

Box-O-Books Maps The Eclectic Pen Fun Stuff

20 Questions Sudoku Bookmark Creator

Top 100

Requests Posts Swappers Referrers Reviewers

Pulse of PBS Spread The Word

Invite Friends Bookmarks Facebook Page Facebook App More Ways...

Photo Gallery Recipes Club Tag Cloud Member Testimonials

Help Center submenu

How To Swap Books Browse Help Docs Ask the Librarian PBS Member Icons Live Help

Kiosk

PBS Market (New Books) Go Shopping Buy Credits Buy PBS Money Upgrade Membership Gift Certificates Transfer Credits

Need Help?

Search - The Selected Writings of John Marin (American Biography Series)

The Selected Writings of John Marin - American Biography Series
Author: John Marin

The Selected Writings of JOHN MARIN John Marin 1920. Photograph by Alfred Stieghtz The Selected Writings of Edited with an Introduction by DOROTHY NORMAN PELLEGRINI 8c CUDAHY New York INTRODUCTION by Dorothy Norman That John Marin should be widely acclaimed as one o Americas foremost painters is scarcely surprising. With the publication of this ... more »volume it is to be hoped that his writings as well may come into their own. For Marin, happily, is one of those rare painter-poets whose pictures and writings alike are to be treasured whose paintingsin the words of Simonides might justly be called silent poetry his writing, speaking painting. In fact, precisely because he is so fine an artist, both as painter and writer, this book may well serve a double purpose in addition to being enjoyed for their own sake, Marin s writ ings should help to provide many an important clue to Marin the painter clues that should aid greatly to dispel some of the manifold misconceptions that have been held about his pictures over the years. That Marin has long been aware of the existence of such misconceptions, both with respect to his own work, and to that of most other creative artists, is evidenced in even his early writ ings by 1928 he was already impatient with the platitudes of those who write upon things about which they sense mighty little. . . . The worker, he noted at the time, is one rather given to observing, thinking and doing. Its not easy for him to talk about and explain his work, but as he and his work have been placed in false position many times, I suppose that he owes it to himself and his world to say something. 1 In one sense, therefore, publication of this book may even be looked upon as an act of cooperation with the artist as the offering to him of an opportunity to be heard in his own right about his own life and work and in as comprehensive a manner as possible. For after all who should know better the exact nature of his preoccupations and intent than the artist himself i John Marin, by Himself 1928. But then, once having read Harms writings and looked at his paintings, how might one best characterize him There can be no question but that in his every gesture he is a man filled with wonder before nature a man highly respect ful of the laws of nature and the disciplines of ones chosen craft, whatever that craft may be. Equally evident is his rejection of all that is pretentious, academic or intellectualized whether with respect to art or to life itself. Art, he has written, is produced by the wedding of man and material. . . . When man loves material and will not under any circumstances . . . destroy its own inherent beauty, then and then only can that wonderful thing we call art be created. 2 Seems to me, he has stated, the true artist must perforce go from time to time to the elemental big forms Sky, Sea, Mountain, Plain and those things pertaining thereto, to sort of re-true himself up, to recharge the battery. For these big forms have everything. But to express these, you have to love these, to be a part of these in sympathy. One doesnt get very far without this love 3 With respect to natures basic laws, Marin has strict and definite views Go look at the birds flight, he advises, the mans walk, the seas movement. They have a way to keep their motion. Natures laws of motion have to be obeyed and you have to follow along. . . , 4 The good picture, he asserts, also must embrace these laws. So that when finished . . . it will be an object with boundaries as definite as that the prow, the stern, the sides and bottom bound a boat. Basic laws, according to Marin, are to be respected under any and all circumstances. But let anyone so much as mention to him such terms as abstract, concrete, third or fourth dimen sion. . . . He retorts with a bah. Dont bother us, he ex claims . . . the worker, the seer, is apt to damn all terms applied by the discussionists. 2 Letter to Stieglitz, Addison, Maine, August 31, 1940...

ISBN-13: 9780781282673
ISBN-10: 0781282675
Pages: 241
Rating:

0 stars, based on 0 rating

Publisher: Reprint Services Corp
Book Type: Library Binding
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

Genres:

Back to the Top ↑

Search - The Selected Writings of John Marin (American Biography Series)

Loading...