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Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: Expanded Edition

by Lawrence Weschler
University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 2009
336 pp., illus. 51 col., 36 b/w. Trade, $50.00; paper, $24.95
ISBN: 9780520256088 ; ISBN: 978-0520256095.

and

True to Life: Twenty-Five Years of Conversations with David Hockney

by Lawrence Weschler
University of California Press; Berkeley, CA, 2009 blablas_artist
272 pp., illus. 60 col., 100 b/w. Trade, $50.00; paper, $24.95
ISBN: 9780520243750 ; ISBN: 978-0520258792.

Reviewed by Amy Ione
The Diatrope Institute
Berkeley, CA 94704 USA.

ione@diatrope.com

In True to Life: Twenty-Five Years of Conversations with David Hockney , Lawrence Weschler notes that a Hockney comment, "You see with memory," runs diametrically counter to Robert Irwin's entire aesthetic. Irwin's creative starting point is concisely summed up in the title of Weschler's biography on Irwin, Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees . For Irwin, to truly see something, one needs to forget everything about it, right down to its very name. Yet, as Weschler points out, the seemingly divergent approaches of these two artists do have a fascinating meeting point: Their most successful projects draw us into the artist's world. As we come to know their pieces, we are, in effect, in the work with the artist through this engagement. Their creative projects do not hold us as removed spectators, but ask us to step in and join their vision. This relational aspect is most explicitly contextualized in the final essay of the Hockney book, which speaks of artist's return to painting in 2007. After Hockney mentioned that he had taken to thinking of these late landscape canvases as figure paintings, Weschler pointed out that there are no bodies in these works. Hockney replied that the viewer is the figure in the work.

Weschler, a worthy chronicler of these quite different artists, similarly draws the reader into and makes her feel a part of the conversations in the room (or the car, or the gallery). His ability to allow us to listen in on these thoughtful exchanges, now extending into several decades, is successful because the author combines a casual writing style that deepens our understanding of their creative intuition with a sense that he is sincerely interested in the work of each artist. Indeed, Wechsler's words suggest he genuinely finds the work of both men compelling. Equally valuable is that the texts include a grasp of how both Hockney and Irwin have contributed to the evolution of contemporary art and the dialogue surrounding it.

I applaud the University of California Press' decision to release the books together. Reading them as a pair allows each to enhance the other and to demonstrate that artistic mastery does not follow a formula. The intangible qualities of the artistic pursuit are also a part of the story behind the volumes. Soon after the Irwin book was first published, in 1982, David Hockney invited Weschler to his studio to discuss it. He explained that although he totally disagreed with Irwin's approach and ideas, he couldn't stop thinking about the volume. This meeting was the beginning of the series of engrossing dialogues that are now offered in the Hockney book. While I am fascinated by the way the two men have dialogued with one another through Weschler's writing, I find it puzzling that they have not met in person although both have spent significant time in Southern California. I think a meeting is long overdue . . .

The Irwin book, Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees first introduced readers to Robert Irwin. The expanded edition of 2009 adds subsequent conversations and later projects to the volume. With these additions, Wechsler shows how Irwin's work has changed and that his thinking has become more supple. The update is accomplished through 6 additional chapters and 24-four full-color plates. Reading over the three decades of conversation, I am quite impressed with Weschler's handling of experiential thrust of Irwin's work, including the Zen-like qualities Irwin brings to it. Anyone who delighted in the 1982 release will want to also read the expanded edition, which surveys many of Irwin's site-conditioned projects -- in particular the Central Gardens at the Getty Museum and the design that transformed an abandoned Hudson Valley factory into Dia's new Beacon campus. Opened in 2003 and situated on the banks of the Hudson River, Robert Irwin was a part of the team that transformed this former Nabisco box-printing facility into an art facility, influencing the design and landscaping of the outdoor spaces, and the entrance building and the window design.

The Hockney book is more of an anthology. Here Weschler gathers his writings on Hockney's eclectic production and the creative thinking that accompanies it. As such, there are essays on his scenic designs for opera, his photocollage work, his fascinating xerographic prints, his exploration of physics in relation to Ch i nese landscape painting, his investigations into optical devices, and other phases of his artistic career. Overall, the Hockney/ Weschler conversations provide an astonishing record of Hockney's exploration of "the structure of seeing" itself and offer a window on his work. To Weschler 's credit, he also includes a few critical responses to some of the projects. For example, he presents the Hockney-Falco thesis and Hockney's study of the use of optical devices by historical artists at length and also mentions that scientists, art historians and artists have questioned these claims. While it is beyond the scope of this review to discuss in details where critics have demonstrated that the Hockney-Falco hypothesis rests on only weak circumstantial evidence, I do applaud Weschler for documenting that these ideas are controversial. He also points readers to the primary websites on the pros and cons of the optical device theory. [The David Stork FAQ page is at http://www.diatrope.com/stork/FAQs.html. Charles Falco's FAQ are at http://www.optics.arizona.edu/SSD/FAQ.html.

My primary criticism of the books is the reproductions. In both cases, they serve more as signposts than clear denominators of the works. Weschler's words capture the vision of these two artists so well that the incredibly small thumbnails are not as much a problem as they could be (although they may bring tears to the eye of anyone who knows the actual work). While these small images may have allowed the book to sell at a more reasonable price, they hardly capture the work of these two talented figures. Anyone who has compared reproductions of Robert Irwin's oeuvre with the actual pieces is well aware of how poorly the direct experience of his work translates. More than with painting, or even traditional sculpture, the size/scale relationships, flattened space, and the perceptual impact provided by the facsimile dramatically alters ones sense of what one will actually encounter when placed in the physical space. Hockney's work similarly suffers, although since many of the pieces are flat in the original, the distortions are not quite as shocking. What is lost is particularly evident in the photocollage work. The details, dynamics, and perceptual tricks are breathtaking in the originals. While reproductions that do justice to Irwin's work are hard to come by, works like Robert Irwin Getty Garden (2002) and Being and Circumstance: Notes Toward a Conditional Art (1985) do offer alternative images. With Hockney there are many other options. Rather than settle for the small, abysmal reproductions in this publication. I would recommend that readers, instead, seek out Cameraworks (1984) or David Hockney: Retrospective Photoworks (1998 ) to accompany their reading about the photocollages in the Hockney book. Online images offer another option.

Finally, I must admit that I'm a big fan of Lawrence Weschler's writing style. His ability to present and comment upon the artistic process without bogging it down in superfluous critical commentary, allows his essays to help us think about what creativity is in the broadest sense. Weschler's ability to capture these two radically different artists attests to his talent as a writer. Definitely read these books!