VALUING FLATNESS.

VALUING FLATNESS. Deeply set windows, rusticated stone, and the resulting play of shadows are characteristic of the facades of Renaissance palazzos. Renaissance artists were enchanted with perspective and the three dimensionality of the world. The essay I linked to yesterday shows how flatness is valued in modern architecture. Much of our world tends to be flat–think of television screens, movie screens, computer screens. And then there’s painting. Annalisa just bought PROBLEM SOLVING FOR OIL PAINTING by Gregg Kreutz. It’s a terrific book even for people who don’t paint. Kreutz says: “Modern painting is about flatness….from the 1920’s onward it’s hard to find any serious painter “painting” (in the sense in which the word had previously been used). Depicting light and depth became something like gun-blueing or powdered-wig-making, a lost art.” I think all this flatness has changed how we see the world.