John McLaughlin in his studio © 2023 Rebecca Gabriel
"My greatest emphasis is on simplicity. This quality does not necessarily indicate lack of content. For many years I have been devoted to Asian paintings of certain schools and, above all, the most compelling quality in this has been the economy of means in concert with large unpainted areas. These paintings I could get into and they made me wonder who I was. By contrast, Western painters tried to tell me who they were."
– John McLaughlin, quote published on the occassion of a memorial survey of the artist's work at André Emmerich Gallery in New York, 1979
Harvey Quaytman in his studio © 2023 Peter Bellamy
"Quaytman was fascinated by the material properties of paint, and he used an acrylic medium in combination with his pigments, often crushing and grinding the pigments himself before mixing. Acrylic was a new medium for painters. It had been made commerically available in the 1950s by manufacturers such as Bocour Artist Colors and Rohm and Haas... Free of the association of traditional binders such as oil and tempera, acrylic was the medium of choice for painters such as Quaytman seeking to redefine painting."
– Harvey Quaytman's Arc by Apsara DiQuinzio, published in the catalogue essay for Harvey Quaytman: Against the Static at University of California Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive
John McLaughlin
#19-1958, 1958
Oil on canvas
60 x 38 inches (152.4 x 96.5 cm)
"For McLaughlin, the work of Sesshu... revealed an accuracy and contemplative view of open space that the Impressionists did not have... Sesshu's ink paintings, including major scrolls in private collections in Japan as well as in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, interpret a vision of nature with multiple intervals of empty space, thus revealing the perennial presence of the void. In looking at Sesshu's painting and related scrolls, McLaughlin noted how the depiction of the rocks and trees, the mountains and the rivers, the rivers and clouds, were accentuated through these subtle areas of vast space."
– John McLaughlin's "Marvelous Void," essay by Robert C. Morgan for the catalogue published on the occassion of Van Doren Waxter's 2016 exhibition John McLaughlin: Marvelous Void
John McLaughlin
No 14 (detail) , 1973
Acrylic on canvas
48 1/8 x 59 7/8 in (122 x 152 cm)
"Upon his returning to New England after his visit to Japan, McLaughlin soon visited the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where he saw Malevich's Suprematist painting, White on White (1918), for the first time and grasped the possibility of extending Sesshu's marvelous void into the domain of Western art. McLaughlin recognized in the work of Malevich a certain invincibility–an unconditional presence–that he wanted to explore further. Rather than represent nature in "particular" terms, as did the Impressionists, McLaughlin sought over time to reveal in painting an openness to nature by transforming his idea of painting into a source of contemplation that would affect his openness. Rectilinear shapes and surfaces were selected not because they were representations of nature, but because they were neutral forms without representation that might bring us closer to the kind of sensorial balance and equanimity that we feel when we are at one with nature."
– John McLaughlin's "Marvelous Void," essay by Robert C. Morgan for the catalogue published on the occassion of Van Doren Waxter's 2016 exhibition John McLaughlin: Marvelous Void
Harvey Quaytman
Vermilitude (detail), 1986
Acrylic and Iron on Canvas
28 x 28 in (71.1 x 71.1 cm)
"I would hope that Malevich is present in an important way: his sense of optimism and utopianism... the difference between American Minimalism and Russian Suprematism is the difference between materialism and utopianism. The difference is that in the work of the Suprematists there is a great hope in the future and in a better world, whereas the Americans are quite satisfied with the here and now... in American Minimalism there is so little culture. I'm interested more in values than how the pictures look. The funny thing is that I have never loved Malevich's paintings, but I love his mind and spirituality."
– Harvey Quaytman interviewed by Kimmo Sarje, 1987
Harvey Quaytman
VBVV, 1985
Acrylic on canvas
48 x 48 inches (121.9 x 121.9 cm)
"Quaytman's use of the grid directly relates to the abstract compositions of Mondrian, whereas his invocation of the cross harkens back to the paintings of Malevich. In this synthesis of European modern styles, combined with his own material investigations, Quaytman found a novel voice within geometric abstraction."
– Harvey Quaytman's Arc by Apsara DiQuinzio, published in the catalogue essay for Harvey Quaytman: Against the Static at University of California Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive
