Harold Town

Born :

June 13, 1924

Died :

December 27, 1990

If art could be absolutely verified as to importance in, say, the way gold can be judged for purity and weight, then it would of course be finished as mythic activity. Free of doubt, controversy, and the inexplicable fluctuation of reputation, art-making would bear the same relationship to creativity as cake mix does to baking.

cake creativity art

Painting is still to a great extent dominated by a central image; corners in most cases are like uninvited guests at a party, uneasy and unattended.

painting party guests

It took me over a couple of months to find the right piece of transparent paper for a section near the centre, on the right side of the Garden of Nebuchadnezzar. When I did find it, it was on a bottle of my wife's toilet water.

garden couple water

I am interested in doing something that cannot be explained. by Harold Town

I am interested in doing something that cannot be explained.

Thomson's small oil sketches of the last years palpitate and throb. They are as direct in attack as a punch in the nose.

oil strength years

Any artist who doesn't think he's the best should quit. by Harold Town

Any artist who doesn't think he's the best should quit.

quitting artist thinking

I make up a set of rules and play within those rules until I win. by Harold Town

I make up a set of rules and play within those rules until I win.

It's such an honour being banned in Italy, the mother of sensuality. It's like being asked to straighten your tie in a bordello... It's ironic that the pictures were removed on the complaint of a cardinal. I regard censorship as a cardinal sin.

ironic ties mother

I don't believe anyone really likes paint, unless he's tempted to... by Harold Town

I don't believe anyone really likes paint, unless he's tempted to eat it.

paint likes believe

With love I draw what I hate. by Harold Town

With love I draw what I hate.

i-hate draws hate

Made up of corallitic accretions and painful increments, lit on rare occasions by bolts of revelation, and then stuffed behind the wainscotting to grope in the mouse-turd dust, art is the equivalent of athlete's foot, at best an exquisite itch, at worst an excuse to stop walking. On the emotional side, it is either masturbation with a hockey glove or a night beneath the sliding moon that shames Eros.

hockey athlete art