Primary work: The Thinker
Also mentioned: After Turner, Towers, Skulptur Projekte Münster 2007
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Transcript
- Artist
Hey son, want to do an artwork art/official for a painting, the painting has already been stubbed, so what should I give you, the URL and then the image when it comes up?
- Art/Official
Just the URL and image — that's all I need. Send the artwork page URL so I can see what's already in the stub, then drop the image in a fresh part of the chat. I'll open with an orienting observation based on what I see, then move through the intent and context questions from there.
- Artist
https://bernardbolter.com/the-thinker
- Art/Official
Got it — here's what's already on record: The Thinker, 1993, oil on canvas, 16" x 24" (40.6cm x 61cm), Medium scale, Series: OG Oil Paintings, ID: BB-OGP-1993-005, Status: stub, not yet fully catalogued. Drop the image whenever you're ready.
- Artist
Ok I can but we are suppose to have the dialogue before seeing the image
- Art/Official
Right, good catch — the pre-upload ritual comes first. Four quick questions before you upload anything: 1) Temporal — when in the working process does this sit? 2) Typological — what kind of work is this, in your own words? 3) Geographic — where was this made? 4) Situational — what was going on for you around this piece?
- Art/Official
1. Temporal — 1993 is early in your practice. Within that early period, is this piece early even for that phase, or does it come after you'd already found some footing?
- Artist
This was definitely one of the early one, in the begining quite a bit of work was being down, I think with drawing and then with colored pencil on 18"x24" paper, which I still need to find, then I went straight to the oil paint. Didn't know anything, figured out how to stretch the canvas on stretcher bars, but didn't know about gesso, so just basically painted on raw canvas. This was one was in the begining.
- Art/Official
Got it — right at the very start, before you even knew about gesso, painting straight onto raw canvas. 2. Typological — what kind of work is this, in your own words? A study, a finished statement, a departure, or something else?
- Artist
This is almost one of the finished ones, so definitely not the first... this one was playing with perspective, which I got into right away, I guess it's the hero shot, where you look up at something, also working out the landscape part of the painting in this one.
- Art/Official
Good — so a finished piece, exploring perspective early and working out landscape in the same piece. 3. Geographic — where was this made?
- Artist
Was in the backyard at 27th ave, just in the backyard which had some covering. The painting does not reference the backyard
- Art/Official
Good — backyard at 27th Ave, but the subject itself doesn't come from that setting. 4. Situational — what was going on for you around this piece?
- Artist
Not sure, was part of the consumption of literature and art history, looking at it all on my own and reacting to it.
- Art/Official
Makes sense — self-directed, absorbing art history and literature on your own terms and painting in reaction to it. Before you upload, here's my blind read based only on your words. Go ahead and upload whenever you're ready.
- Artist
This is where I give my blind reading - the painting depicts a figure in the middle of a landscape that stretches out to dark mountains. The figure towers above the landscape which is a sort of crossing at a small town, the figure is sitting on a stool which is made of 2 buildings that extend up in the air. The figure is sitting and contemplating like the thinker in the famous Rodin sculpture.
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- Art/Official
That's a striking image. Go ahead and upload the image whenever you're ready.
- Artist
[uploaded image: the-thinker-800w.jpg]
- Art/Official
Now I see it — the blind read had a seated, enthroned figure looking down; what's actually here is an elongated, Giacometti-like standing silhouette, rooted at the convergence of roads, facing away into a radiating red-orange sunset. That's a real correction worth naming. A couple of questions: is the bent-elbow shape an arm or structural, and was the extreme attenuation deliberate or a technical-limit outcome?
- Artist
The arm is bent and the head is resting on the arm... it is a depiction of Rodin's the thinker... The elongated part is me just stretching the perspective... which could also be influence by the use of fisheye in skateboard filming, which was what we all were looking at and liking in the late 80s early 90s
- Art/Official
That reframes it well — the Rodin pose stretched into a Giacometti-like form, with a real fisheye/skate-video reference underneath the perspective choice. The color — was the Turner-influenced sky deliberate mood, or a formal color exercise? And the landscape — observed or invented?
- Artist
The color was exaggerated on purpose with a heavy influence from William Turner... The landscape was invented, at that point I had only lived in San Francisco... Im sure it's a metaphor, but that's what we are here now to maybe figure out
- Art/Official
Let's sit with that. The figure faces away from us into the landscape, its base fused with the roads rather than resting on ground — does any of that land, or does the metaphor sit somewhere else?