Nicolas de Staël
Dear Fran,
Do you know a painter named Nicolas de
Staël?
He was an artist who lived in the first
half of the last century and who during his short life was struggling to
reconcile classical and figurative painting and modern and abstract painting.
It turns out that his work has hypnotized
me; more than his work, his way of painting. And do you know why? Because I
identify with the way of constructing the painting.
He was a man who never stopped learning
from his colleagues, whether they were older or younger than him. He had an
insatiable curiosity to know the artistic currents that were in force in the
Paris of his time, as well as to scrutinize the canvases that museums hang on
their walls. I am about to think that he never managed to consolidate his own
style (or that his style was the one that appeared at all times when he stood
in front of the canvas), although we are capable of recognizing one of his
paintings because in addition to dying very young he got tired very soon of
what he was doing and then he changed and looked for another way of expressing
what he felt.
Fran, something like this is what is
happening to me right now. If he allowed himself to be influenced by others, I
am allowing myself to be influenced by him.
Y. a.
Mary
