A Little Happier: Keep the Paint as Good as It Is in the Can.

I love koans, paradoxes, teaching stories, aphorisms, maxims, anything of that sort.

I discovered this personal “koan” from artist Frank Stella in Color Chart: Reinventing Color: 1950 to Today, by Ann Temkin. The book was published to accompany a big exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art here in New York City. My color obsession continues!

Stella says, “I knew a wise guy who used to make fun of my painting, but he didn’t like the Abstract Expressionists either. He said they would be good painters if they could only keep the paint as good as it is in the can. And that’s what I tried to do. I tried to keep the paint as good as it was in the can.”

The painting is Frank Stella’s Lac Laronge III. What do you think — is the paint as good as it is in the can? (Whatever that means.)

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Happier listening!

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