Bruce Pearson

"In the past, when I was doing my early abstract painting, it seemed to me that I was working with a closed system. Now, it seems that the more permission I give myself to find interesting material, the more I open up possibilities. The more possibilities I open up, the better the ideas become. There was an excellent survey exhibition of drawings in the mid-nineties at MoMA called "The Maximal Sixties." It showed that the era produced very strong figuration, very strong conceptual work and very strong abstraction, while also entertaining a large number of other artistic currents. The sixties was a period of great experimentation, not only in the visual arts but in music as well. Then came Minimalism, which as lovely as it can be, was this driven, puritan movement. It was about shutting down possibilities. Now, it seems to me, things are opening up again. There's the notion of new media and the resurgence of old media that is being interpreted in brand new ways. I think many, many artists today are being affected by these new possibilities."

Bruce Pearson
http://www.wburg.com/0102/arts/bruce.html