Mark Making is the essence of the [[Artists Method]]. [[Art]] (images) are one of the silentest forms of art, silent Reading imposes its narrative on you, music fills your mind, but art goes away unheard. It's maybe why I like 'loud' images, because they try desperately to gain your attention. You have to shout loud to get attention - but once they do have it, you can enter a world of wonder for a moment. Mark making is the starting point of all art, the purest form of human expression. It’s where theory falls away, and the act of creating takes over. Visual art stands apart from other forms—purely visual, relying solely on what the eye perceives. It draws attention not through sound or narrative, but through the immediacy of what’s seen, allowing moments of reflection or wonder. In this stage, it’s about process over [[precision]]. It’s about exploring textures, layers, and forms, whether with traditional tools or digital media. Here, the artist engages with the surface, letting instinct and [[Experimentation]] guide the creation, transforming marks into something meaningful. Remember, the goal is to embrace the spirit of surrender and allow your creative instincts to guide you. Don't worry about creating a finished piece, but rather focus on the process of exploring and expressing your ideas through loose sketching and abstract mark making. --- The idea—that the physical act of painting, the gesture, and the materiality of the brushstroke are the primary subjects of the work, rather than a secondary means to depict something else—is a cornerstone of modern art. It's central to the discourse of painterliness and process art. Here are the artists who typify this idea, divided by movement, followed by those who wrote profoundly about it. Artists Who Exemplify This Idea 1. The Proto-Moderns: Laying the Groundwork · J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851): In his late works, the subject (a ship, a storm) dissolves into a vortex of slashing, atmospheric brushwork. The paint itself becomes the light, wind, and chaos. · Édouard Manet (1832-1883): His bold, flat, and seemingly unfinished brushstrokes rejected academic smoothness, drawing attention to the act of painting itself. The brushmark was a mark of modernity. · Paul Cézanne (1839-1906): His constructive brushstrokes—patient, parallel touches of color—were not just describing form but building it, like masonry. The process of seeing and constructing became the subject. 2. The Pioneers of Gesture as Meaning: Abstract Expressionism This movement is the absolute epitome of your question. · Jackson Pollock (1912-1956): The ultimate example. The brush (or stick, or basting syringe) mark is not a brushmark at all in the traditional sense, but a record of a full-body gesture, a drip, a flung trail of paint. The painting is the fossilized record of its own making. · Willem de Kooning (1904-1997): His brushwork is a violent, slashing, passionate struggle. In his Women series, the figure emerges from and is consumed by a frenzy of aggressive, sweeps of paint. · Franz Kline (1910-1962): His huge black and white abstractions are about the monumental brushstroke itself—its weight, speed, and architectural presence. · Cy Twombly (1928-2011): Extended the gestural mark into the graphic, combining painting, drawing, and writing. His loops, scrawls, and smears are like traces of thought or ancient graffiti, where the process of marking is the content. 3. European Counterparts: Informel & Tachisme · Pierre Soulages (1919-2022): Known as "the painter of black," he investigated the reflective quality of brushstrokes on black. The texture, direction, and light-catching ridge of the stroke is the sole subject. He called his work "Outrenoir" (Beyond Black). · Antoni Tàpies (1923-2012): Built thick, scarred, material surfaces (mixed with sand, marble dust) that were more like walls or earth than paintings. The brush (and trowel) mark is an archaeological trace. 4. Contemporary Artists · Gerhard Richter (b. 1932): He embodies this in two contradictory ways. His squeegee abstractions are created by dragging layers of paint, making the process of making-and-obliterating visible. Conversely, his hyper-realist paintings painstakingly erase all brushmarks, making their absence a powerful statement. · Cecily Brown (b. 1969): Revives the sensuous, loaded brushstroke of de Kooning, using it to dissolve and recompose figures in a painterly frenzy where the marks are as legible as the forms. · Marlene Dumas (b. 1953): While figurative, her work relies on the economy and physicality of the brushstroke. A single, wet stroke can define a face or a limb, making the act of depiction and the material used inseparable. --- Artists Who Wrote About This Concept The theoretical articulation of this idea is as important as the practice. 1. The Key Theorist-Painter: · Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944): In his seminal book Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1911), he argued for the expressive power of formal elements (color, line, shape) independent of subject matter. While not solely about brushstrokes, he laid the philosophical groundwork for valuing the mark itself as a carrier of emotional and spiritual force. 2. The Critics Who Defined the Movement: · Clement Greenberg (1909-1994): The most influential critic of Abstract Expressionism. In essays like "Modernist Painting" (1960), he championed "flatness" and the acknowledgment of the painting's material nature. He argued that advanced painting must emphasize its own unique properties—the flat canvas, the shape of the support, the properties of pigment. The brushstroke, as an undeniable record of the artist's hand and the paint's physicality, became a hero in Greenberg's narrative. · Harold Rosenberg (1906-1978): Provided the other crucial term. In his essay "The American Action Painters" (1952), he famously wrote: "At a certain moment the canvas began to appear to one American painter after another as an arena in which to act... What was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an event." This directly states that the action (recorded by the brushmark) is more important than the finished image ("the stereotype of what constitutes an art piece"). 3. The Artist as Writer: · Robert Motherwell (1915-1991): A leading Abstract Expressionist and a brilliant intellectual. His writings and lectures (collected in The Writings of Robert Motherwell) are a profound meditation on the act of painting, the role of automatism, and the existential significance of the artist's gesture. · Ad Reinhardt (1913-1967): Known for his "black paintings," he wrote and cartooned acerbically about art. He pushed Greenberg's ideas to their logical extreme, arguing for a pure, self-referential art "free from the interference of the hand." In doing so, he highlighted the inescapable importance of the artist's touch by famously trying to eliminate it. In Summary: · Typified by: The Abstract Expressionists (Pollock, de Kooning, Kline) are the purest examples. They were preceded by late Turner and Cézanne, and followed by artists like Richter and Soulages who continue the investigation. · Theorized by: The critic Clement Greenberg provided the formal rationale, while Harold Rosenberg coined the vital term "Action Painting." The artist Robert Motherwell provided first-hand intellectual insight. The brushmark, in this tradition, is the authentic trace of the artist's presence, a direct conduit to emotion or existential action, and the true subject of the work. It elevates process over product.