Jordan Stein interviews John Pittman

My titles are mostly descriptive, referential. The sequential composition numbers provide a timeline for the past fifteen years and each piece is an episode. The process is ongoing and there is no conclusion.

2.
JS
Your works appear quite simple at first blush, but they’re incredibly complicated, heavily worked. How do you see the relationship between labor and grace? Is it out there somewhere waiting for us? Or perhaps inside of us? Both? I guess what I want to know is: is grace something you’re trying to tap into from within or without?

JP
For me the creative process is more about activity than about contemplation. Activity begets ideas and the process compounds with further activity. The things that I make have multiple sources. They are the result of my experience and they are also my response to a very strong innate aesthetic core, a sense of correctness and a sense of purpose. Is this from within or is this from beyond? It must be from both, and if it is good it is by grace.

3.
JS
Tell me more about this sense of correctness and purpose. Have you always been motivated by those feelings? And how have those feelings evolved — if they’ve evolved — as your work has become more austere (arguably more correct and purposeful)?

JP
My purpose has always been to make beautiful and unique objects. Within the realm of geometric abstraction there seem to be relationships that are uniquely pleasing and correct. My compositions are more the product of intuition than calculation, yet the balances achieved are delicate and true. My sensibilities have refined gradually and they have become simultaneously more simple as well as more complex.

4.
JS
Is it possible to bridge a gap between activity and contemplation? Are the works contemplated before they’re made? Sketched? Imagined? Rendered in any way?

JP
I compose from the outside in. I start with a rough dimension and consider single, diptych, or multi-parts. There is no drawing involved. I then compose with matboard pieces, puzzling rectangles and linear components. Levels of relief/recession are determined and exact dimensions established. Before assembly, the rectangular panels are primed and coated with modeling paste. After assembly, the painting process begins with a base color. Subsequent layering determines value, hue, density, and surface quality. As I work through the stages of a particular piece I am usually visited by vague ideas that then lead to the next.

5.
JS
What is the role of improvisation in your process? Walk me though the precise mark-making on the surfaces of the work.

JP
Good question. Originally I employed heavy gesso and then modeling paste to eliminate the visibility of the wood grain. I then realized that I could manipulate and in effect activate these surfaces, generating another level of interest. The paste is water based, sets up quickly, and forces me to act and react almost simultaneously. The resulting marks and surface irregularities provide an interesting counterpoint to the calculated geometry of the overall composition. The surfaces seem real, very appealing.

6.
JS
I read your works as both painting and sculpture; not just surface, but object, too. Can you speak to this?

JP
Yes, they are hybrids. As stated earlier, I have always endeavored to make beautiful and unique objects. The surfaces are broken via relief and recession, shadows become important compositional elements, and each is a subtle box presentation. Although they are presented vertically, as are paintings, I feel that they are most accurately described as painted objects.

7.
JS
Your career began with the legendary Phyllis Kind Gallery in Chicago. What was it like to come up in that environment and who were your major influences at the time?

JP
Actually, my initial, and still primary influence has been Piet Mondrian. My mentor at Kenyon College, Joseph Slate, had studied with Joseph Albers at Yale and my interest in geometric abstraction and color theory was nurtured in those years. When I arrived at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1970), Whitney Halstead and Ray Yoshida were my advisors and my work was heavily influenced by Joseph Cornell and H. C. Westermann. Since I came to the Phyllis Kind Gallery relatively late (1973 I think) I was not part of the established group and only got to know Jim Nutt well because of our mutual affliction, golf. I have always admired Jim’s inquisitive nature, his incredible skills, and his thoroughly unique vision. Miyoko Ito was the artist whose work I always felt closest to and my admiration for her legacy is boundless.

8.
JS
At some point (what year?), you moved to a lovely, quiet piece of land in rural Illinois. How and why did that happen, and how has your time out west, so to speak, informed your practice?

JP
I never considered art making to be a group activity. I am fortunate to have an ideal studio space that has been my sanctuary for the past 33 years. My practice is solitary and my retreat deliberate. I am rather confused and dismayed by the art world and I have found that suburbia is a viable refuge.

9.
JS
I know you’ve made your living as a custom framer for many years, a process that clearly shows in your meticulous craftsmanship. Do you think about framing while you’re in the studio, or art while you’re at the frame shop? What’s the relationship there?

JP
I need to work with my hands every day. Good craftsmanship is my passion. My daily schedule is a balanced combination of studio time and frame shop hours. The frame shop pays for groceries, the studio fuels my soul. When I am at the frame shop I am always thinking about my art. When I am at my studio I am never thinking about framing.

10.
JS
Your son, Steuart, is an excellent painter in Oakland, CA. Any hope for a father/son show in the future?

JP
I have considered the possibility of a show with my son Steuart and, yes, I think it will eventually happen…when we are both ready.

Jordan Stein is a curator in San Francisco.
John Pittman is an artist in Chicago.