Canto 74: Movement-3-4, 1988

On a day in 1988 the Canto-can had put me on another, as yet untrodden trail in realistic painting. On that day the can wasn’t standing on the table, but it was lying on it. I was forced to hang perpendicularly over the table in order to perceive the thing at the same angle as I was used to. This was awkward, tiresome and difficult, but what an experience it was! This radical change in point of view, viz. from the highest point, was a revelation and gave a completely new dimension to the human perception of reality. Why had this point of view been totally neglected by ages of painting? While it is literally right before your eyes? Perhaps because we are progammed to look straight ahead, and by doing so can easily be distracted.

Perhaps a factor is that the world, as seen from above, looses the illusion of depth, as everything looks a lot flatter and the usual coulisse-like structure disappears. Perhaps also because the actual painting from this position is physically hard, because a lot of the time one stands bent forward. And perhaps also because painting like this is more difficult, as from the bent-forward position back to the panel on the easel one has to "remember" what one has seen a lot longer than when normally, seated behind the easel, one only has to move one’s eyes.

Twelve pieces of a vase, 1990, o/p, 50x40 cm (private collection)

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