“We don’t have to dwell on what a picture is - it has subject matter, tells some story, is photographic or cinematographic, and sometimes is just plain hand-painted.  The best and most effective pictures can be found in magazines and movies.  If an artist is concerned with communication and a larger public, he should get a job in some mass-publishing or picture industry.

A painting however, is still a relatively private, individual activity, and its freest most abstract form is not concerned with communicating specific information or subject matter.  Because it is universal, unhistorical, and independent of everyday existence doesn’t mean it doesn’t have any meaning.  Some people think that if a painting doesn’t have a subject or isn’t a picture, then it doesn’t have meaning.  This just isn’t true.”

The space of the west, growing up in Eastern Oregon. These things can’t be ignored in my work.

White Walls of Decay - looks familiar…

They’re also here.

As the Tuttle show opens at SFMOMA, those of us who can’t make it right away can still enjoy an excellent interactive presentation about Tuttle, his work, his life, his ideas:

TUTTLE: The presence of simple things.