The Art Spirit - By Robert Henri - More Good Reading.....

On Simplicity..and a lot of nevers.....

"NEVER change the course of a line until you have to.
Never change a plane of a form until you have to.
Never change the tone of a  color or from one color to another until you have to."
page 203

I love this passage from Henri's book. This is something I am trying to get into my head, and across to my students.
He goes on to say...

"If you follow these injunctions intelligently you will practice that great economy which is necessary to expression in your medium.
Every change must count, and count strong. there must be no quibbling. You have the observer of your work under control. Through the changes you lead him straight or crooked into your meaning. If you have digressed into triviality he must digress with you. Where you hesitate or are uncertain, he hesitates and is uncertain. If you are a quibbler and a flounderer, and not direct in your purpose, He turns his back on your work unless he is, himself, like you, happier in floundering."

"Because the medium we use in very limited, we must exercise a great economy in its use. No line or form or color must change until you are compelled by the neccessity of the structure you are making to change it."

"The need for change must be great. You only make the change because you must respond to an absolute demand."

"Some painters flutter all about their subjects, others are straight drivers to the essence of things."

"A house has many windows, but a ray of light catches on one. It becomes the window which declares all windows. It is a  builder and a vitalizer. It links with all the other structures - is one of the big factors in making a whole."

So "What is essential?"

"How shall the greatest economy be practised?"

"Water runs down hill consicely. There is no quibbling about it. It does not have to run uphill in order to be entertaining. Man has always followed its course with fascination. The soul of man may reveal its mysteries through direct expression, simple speech, simple gesture, simple painting, just as the soul of the brook is expressed in full simplicity and economy."

"One of the curses of art is art. The filling up of things with decoration, with by-play, to make them beautiful."

"When art has attained it place, sufaces will be infinitely less broken. There will then be millions less of things, less words, less gesture, less of everything. But each word and each gesture and everything will count in a fuller value."

"When we have attained a sense of the relative value of things, we will need fewer things. We will not change a line or color until we have to - and when we do make a change, a wealth of meaning will then fill the world from this new gesture.(italics mine)

"On a face one accent rightly valued in all its powers is worth a thousand little forms. The little forms subtract more than they add. The right accent achieves."

"You have reserved your forces but now you must expend them positively and effectively. A new course, full of meaning is to be taken, and by it the observer is to be carried deeper into your meaning. You have taken a positive step to force his understanding of your motive".


Henri just said a mouthful and to learn this is a lot of learning. But it is important, the essence of the thing that you are saying! Study and learn my friends...and I'm talking to myself here!