First, a bit about the author and his book which inspired my 7 inspiring thoughts.

Paths to the Absolute by John Golding

The author John Golding (September 10, 1929 – April 9, 2012) was a British artist, art scholar and curator who has written an abundant number of important critical essays.

Paths to the Absolute, comes from his 46^th series of A.W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts. It examines aspects of work by three pioneering European Abstract Painters – Mondrian (1872 – 1944), Malevich (1878 – 1935), and Kandinsky (1866 – 1944 ) – and compares / contrasts these aspects with “their great American successors” – Pollock (1912 – 1956), Newman (1905 – 1970), Rothko (1903 – 1970) and Still (1904 – 1980). Golding states of the American artists “…in the 1940’s and 1950’s (they) succeeded in endowing abstraction with a renewed sense of purpose. It was they who reaffirmed the fact that, at its best and most profound, abstract painting is heavily imbued with meaning, with content, and that, in order to make this content palpable, new formal pictorials innovations must be found to express it”.

The book is organized in 6 easy to read well-crafted chapters with supporting images. Like most books included in my library it includes a complete list of resources for you fact checkers.

7 inspiring 1 sentence musings I learned from this book:

1. An understanding of the foundation of art allows you to expand not repeat.
2. Pioneers and inventors of art styles mentor your soul.
3. Knowledge embedded comes forth intuitively without struggling to locate it.
4. A satisfying journey in art is a sole/soul experience even when you are in a crowd.
5. Trust yourself and the path you are on, if you can’t, switch paths and trust yourself.
6. If you are an artist, over time you will travel a variety of styles and philosophies, enjoy.
7. Every work of art, good or bad in your mind, can teach you something.

Book available from Princeton University Press

What is Abstract Expressionism? A great YouTube video from the Clyfford Still Museum

The Irascibles (Photo by Nina Lee/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)