Mad Men, 2014
don’t know where it’s going to end up.
design is a way of going from an existing condition to a preferred condition
For me, and it’s because I know how to do a lithograph, the computer’s an incredible tool, but it doesn’t change my sensibility. Some people who have ever made prints for instance, it’s very dangerous because it has a way, as I said earlier, of doing what it wants. You have to be very tough about that part. I haven’t seen many people do interesting things in printmaking with the computer except reproduce something. That’s a different game. What are your thoughts on print? Is it dead or is it just evolving? The stuff that you get electronically can’t be replaced by magazines. I think printed forms, because of the economics of publishing are mostly in danger and many, as you know, are going out of business every day. The specialty things will find a position where you want the peculiar satisfaction of turning a page, feeling the surface, looking at things, going back and so on. Electronic material doesn’t do the same. It’s revolutionary in its effect on printed media, but we still
Explain why people need art to survive? I give a definition of difference between design and art because you find most people don’t know the difference. Obviously, design is a way of going from an existing condition to a preferred condition. It is essentially problem driven and functional in that regard and can be evaluated in whether it achieves its objective. Art doesn’t have an objective like that. It doesn’t take you to the end of a problem. There are no inherent problems in art. What art does, it changes our perception of what is real because it’s impossible to understand what is real. If I draw you as I did with my mother when I was a very young boy I will understand what you look like for the first time. Art at its best is mediation between you and the world. It makes you understand what the world is and it changes your idea of what is real. What is real is a very complicated subject. You may think three of us sitting at this table is real. It ain’t real basically because you can look at it from a million different vantage points. Art helps you examine what’s in front of you. Picasso said, “Art is alive. It tells the truth.” That helps you arrive at the truth. That’s a great quote. Do you have any new pieces in your African art collection? No, we got rid of all our African art collection. We got rid of 140 pieces when we moved from a larger apartment to a smaller apartment. It was great. I realize they all exist in my mind so it’s irrelevant whether I have them or not. Are you collecting anything else now or you’re done collecting? No, we pick up occasionally but not like we used to, an occasional piece of certain kind of white pottery. Hellenistic, small Hellenistic Terracotta’s
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