Sanford Ross A Life in Art  1907-1954

 "Is there something important about the process of painting itself or the physical substance of paint?

There are no clear answers to these questions. But the very act of using a hand and a brush to make images that look like photographs seemed to reconnect image-making to a much older history. That history goes back to prehistoric man in dark caves making images of beasts on the walls. That’s to say, image-making has always been redolent of the cult and the totem. Man started making images of nature not simply to record and document. He made images to discover secrets, to commune with unknown forces. . . .  Even during the height of abstraction, painters were still finding ways to be image-makers in the classic sense of the term. Since then, there has been a widespread return to representational images, to figuration, and even to portraits. The reign of the photograph seems to be over. The power of the painted image of man has shown a staying power no one could have expected in 1954."

 

- Morgan Meis

The Smart Set 

Drexel University

July 2014