About this work
A Very Happy Picture
1947
Oil on canvas
36 x 48 in.
Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
In her own words...
The word representational has for some become a stigma – but does any true artist escape this category – and why should he wish to? Some painters represent their feelings about light, darkness, scientific phenomena, natural phenomena, alchemies of all kinds -alchemies of shapes, colors, even of paint. In fact, many artists today are simply in love with paint, they have feelings, even emotions about it and wish to explore it for its own sake. That's fine. But they are still representing, no matter what form it takes, their ideas or fictions on the subject. I believe there is a great deal to be said for this kind of representation. To represent one’s feelings about form and color is a noble and often rewarding (and rewarded) expression. But only a very limited thinker could believe that it is the only current expression possible. What of the human enigma, the magic of hallucination, powers of the eye, man's baffling consciousness, the relations between human beings, animals and all living things, including stones? What about Love? ... love of rotting things, love of artifice, perverse love? What of violence, momentous events, sudden madness and visions?
When I paint I try to represent my feelings about some of these things. Eternity leaves very little time to complete the exploration.
When I paint I try to represent my feelings about some of these things. Eternity leaves very little time to complete the exploration.
Representation is separate from description.
—from an unpublished journal, c. 1947