Charlotte Hobson

Whipping up a masterpiece: painters and their materials

Martin Gayford finds artists from Rembrandt to De Kooning mixing pigment, egg and oil together with all the skill of an accomplished chef

Untitled III, by Willem de Kooning, c.1978. De Kooning approached painting in the style of an innovative chef. One critic described watching him prepare his materials: ‘He mixes his colours in glass salad bowls with safflower oil and water emulsified with a little kerosene, and beats them to a fluffy consistency’. [© The Willem de Kooning Foundation] 
issue 19 October 2024

If you are someone who revels in the deliciousness of oil paintings, who looks at them and wants to eat them ‘as if they were ice cream or something’, in Damien Hirst’s phrase, then Martin Gayford’s latest book will be a banquet. In part, this is thanks to the illustrations – luscious close-ups of Van Gogh’s brushstrokes like buttercream icing, and a double-page spread of a golden Rothko large enough to tumble into.

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