Living large
Have you ever noticed that some paintings seem to live large, no matter their size, and others, not so much? I call the paintings that seem to shrink and suck in all the light around them, black holes. Then there are those paintings that live well within the confines of their frames, which is a certainly a nice place to be. But some paintings live large. They don't just inhabit the confines of their borders, but radiate into the surrounding space.
Now I am pretty sure we will not all agree on the paintings we see as living large, but then I am reminded of T. Allen Lawson's quote, "Art is the space between the viewer and the rectangle that hangs on the wall."
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"I think all good painting looks as though the painting has escaped from the thicket of prepared positions and has entered some sort of freedom where it exists on its own, and by its own laws, and inexplicably has got free of all possible explanations. Possibly the explainers will catch up with it again, but never completely."
- Frank Auerbach on painting
The Pillarbox by Frank Auerbach, 22x22, 2010-22
Frank Auerbach is a German-British painter, born in 1931. He is recognized for his figurative and landscape work.
Below are paintings by Fedor Zakharov, a Ukrainian painter, 1919-1964.
The Beginning of April by Fedor Zakharov, 27x39, 1965
Moonlight by Fedor Zakharov, 37x57, 1963