avocare

. . More views out the office window. I did 50 or 60 of these over the course of a year. . .

[This is not my last digression into the difference between illustration and abstract art. It is probably not even my second to last digression. But take heart, because the end is definitely in sight.] _________________________________________ The inspiration behind abstract art was bold and brilliant. As Holland Cotter wrote about the invention of cubism: The day of pure optical pleasure was over; art had to be approached with caution and figured out. It wasn't organic, beneficent, transporting. It was a thing of cracks and sutures, odors and stings, like life. It wasn't a balm; it was an eruption. It didn't ease your path; it tripped you up. The problem is, once artists cast off the shackles of the old standards, there was no consensus on new standards by which to determine quality. By 1918, the Russian painter Malevich, seeking the ultimate essence of painting, produced an all white canvas: Fifty years later, the American painter Reinhardt improved on Malevich by unveili...