Conversations with Syd

"Conversations with Syd" is an interview with Syd Solomon, included in the program Syd Solomon: A Retrospective Showing produced for an exhibition by that artist from December 5, 1974-January 19, 1975 at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida—location of Solomon's winter home—and again from February 6, 1975-March 16, 1975 at the New York Cultural Center in New York City. It features photographs of Vonnegut and Solomon by Jill Krementz.

Summary

Courtyard, Ringling Museum of Art

Calling Solomon "a good friend" who's about the same age with a similar handlebar mustache, Vonnegut interviewed him at the artist's home in East Hampton, asking him "dumb questions instead of sophisticated" ones about his non-representational art. However, like many in that field, Solomon is quite capable of representational painting and drawing and began his career by catching the attention of his high school teachers in a Pennsylvania mine town. Neither of his Hungarian Jewish immigrant parents, who were "pastoral people", had any artistic talent, nor was there any art in the house growing up except his own works. However, he think painting talent "is simply intelligence", inventiveness, and the "worms of discontent" which produce a dissatisfaction that the artist attempts to overcome. Works by himself and others often disappoint him because of their "lack of tension", although in retrospect he thinks that some he destroyed looked "awfully good". Paintings are not about emotional response but whether the viewer "can tolerate a painting for a long time". There's no universal ingredient shared by great paintings, but determining what is good or not relies on intuition tempered by looking at thousands upon thousands of paintings. Solomon has found that he doesn't find much that he likes except for his own work, a narcissism necessary for all artists to keep working.

Perhaps more than other arts, painting requires critics—who have also looked at a lot of paintings—as the "liaison between the work and the public", since unlike the skill required for other arts, almost anyone can try to paint. In his own occasional work as a critic, he has "tried to be an educated eye" and avoided language that defeated the purpose of criticism. Vonnegut admits that "a lot of art criticism had mystified" him, which Solomon attributes to writing that became "terribly esoteric during the poet-critic period" when attempting to describe abstract art. The rise of Pop Art saw a return to narrative works and more journalist writing about it, an important lesson that criticism should not seek to become its own art form or it fails to serve artists and viewers. Solomon estimates that including drawings and studies, he produces about hundred works a year, with 10-12 "large, major works". He will still sometimes ruin a painting by "going too far", although he can sometime rescue them by changing them considerably. Simplification as technique means sometimes eliminating elements that initially interested him. In the past he has ruined paintings his wife likes, which causes her to weep. Some works remain unfinished for years until suddenly the solution seems obvious and simple, but he says it's mystery how one knows when a work is done. It's strange that painting is still captivating to viewers in an era with so many images, although most people, having not looked at innumerable pictures, do not generally seek out the most "masterful" works.