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> I ask myself "which approaches could be done in one week?". This is exactly how all good art is done. There's an old French saying, une toile exige un mur.
by publicdebates 9mo ago
> I ask myself "which approaches could be done in one week?".
This is exactly how all good art is done. There's an old French saying, une toile exige un mur.
- dxdm 9mo ago> No results found for "une toile exige un mur". In case anyone else is wondering: The French phrase can be translated literally as "a canvas requires a wall", or less closely, "its boundaries are important for every picture". (I am not a native French speaker and just piecing this together with a dictionary.)
- wiether 9mo agoFrench guy here: never heard of "une toile exige un mur". Not a single result in French also. I know there's a (more popular?) saying that is very similar but can't remember it atm.
- publicdebates 9mo agoAre you sure? I thought it was Renoir or Batut, or Bresson, or perhaps Watteau, who, when asked for his most useful advice to a new artist, famously uttered this short and mysterious phrase. Could have sworn LaBeouf quoted it in an interview after he collaborated with artist Cantor on their magnum opus.
- wiether 9mo agoIt could be a niche quote in an art history book, but it could hardly be qualified as a saying. I asked around since my first comment and not a single person knew about it.
- publicdebates 9mo agoIt's so memorable, probably why it stick in my memory: how can you have a canvas without a wall? The wall is the canvas. Yet the wall simultaneously constrains the canvas, thus allowing it to become the canvas, to become worthy of a canvas. This French idiom says so much without saying practically anything.
- dxdm 9mo agoComing back at this with a fresh mind, whoever said it could also have meant that every painting should be displayed: it requires a wall to hang on. As you say, it's not immediately clear what is meant.
- publicdebates 9mo agoEven more evidence of how versatile that French phrase is. There's just so many acceptable meanings to it, and every one of them points to the same conclusion: bounds enable art.