Agnes Martin “I ask my mind, if it’s a good painting. But I also wait three days before I decide…”
(5:15 in the following video. But the whole thing is worth watching…)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-JfYjmo5OA
This is how she creates a space for reflection and judgment in the creative process. Her context is to not let such thoughts intervene while creating the work.
Three days seems reasonable – remove yourself from the creative moment, but never wait long enough to fall victim to real self-doubt. I guess the second part is really what she’s arguing against. Three days is still very close to the moment.
Of course, later in life she did have a tendency to buy back old paintings (before the development of her mature style) and burn them, take them out of history… No artist is immune from self-doubt.
Martin also addresses this, in that perfection is not really achievable since even in the moment of creation, “you get caught between the inspiration and the finished product”, rather than being driven solely by inspiration. The artist cannot take “credit”, since the inspiration is already there before the artist responds – but should surely take “blame”, for getting in their own way, especially when concern becomes self-concern. Her point is that there’s always some blame – yes, take responsibility, but otherwise don’t sweat it, don’t let that keep you from getting the work out there. Keep going, do better next time. That’s why I interpret the “three days” as a plea for a lighter touch.
[Side discussion: If the artist cannot take credit, because inspiration is “channeled”, then to whom can credit be given? I’ve had various ideas on this, and Martin herself does not answer, perhaps because for her the question of credit misses the point. My current stance is that the singular and irreducible moment of inspiration that forces one to produce that singular and irreducible artifact – revealed only in creation, never conditioned or posited in advance – is precisely that which overflows one’s conditioning by history, culture, society, or a million other attempts to posit the subject – it is nothing less than existence, in its primordial sense; that is, to “ex-ist”; to “stand out from” any possible conditioning. The image of a waterfall perhaps best captures this overflowing, the perpetual unfolding of existence. Such existence being truly a gift, of course; a gift that if acknowledged, would overturn all restricted economies in favor of a general economy and thus re-establish sacred space.]
Three days – I realize how badly I’ve heeded this advice, I tend to sit on things for months or years (!!!), and then just get eaten up by self-doubt. Thanks for the occasion to revisit these thoughts.
