Viewing page 17 of 24

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Clyfford STILL

Serene and restless symbols of man's striving

The agitated shapes on the previous page are details from the painting below which, paradoxically, gives an over-all impression of spacious calm. To Clyfford Still (opposite), this mingling of restlessness and tranquility occurs in a man's own life. The nervous shapes and expansive "plains" of color are his symbols for conveying man's struggle for individuality and his enveloping moods of serenity. In the work shown in detail opposite, the white line running through the blue can be likened to man's aloneness in the universe, his aspirations to reach a high, spiritual goal. 
These forthright paintings reveal the intransigent, individualistic spirit of Still himself. Born in 1904 in Grandin, N. Dak., he grew up in the Northwest where the "nobility, cleanness and bigness" of the landscape impressed him deeply. Today these qualities can be found in his work. But essentially, says Still, "my painting is a life statement, not an autobiography."