The material on this site — essentially a mix of ‘matter of record’ documentation and related reflection covering some 50+ years of making art — is currently being reshaped in line with Léger’s 1913 Montjoie! statement:
“We are arriving, I am convinced, at a conception of art as vast as the greatest previous eras: the same tendency towards large dimensions, the same effort shared by a community. This last remark deserves further attention. It is important. [. . .] While one might question an isolated creation, its vitality is demonstrated when it is collectively translated into very distinct means of personal expression.” *
At time of writing, the intention is to reformat everything under four overlapping ‘thinking-through-making’ headings:
‘Well-Making’ | process and making as ethical reflection…
‘Beneficial Practice’ | art as social labour situated in place…
‘Glittering Materiality’ | “luminosity rather than clarity”…
‘Mass-Artist’ | collaboration as distributed authorship…
There is much to do. And until it’s done, it is what Ad said:
“There seems to be nothing much to say, and sometimes nothing much to see.”
– Ad Reinhardt, 1954
* T. J. Clark: ‘Cubism and Collectivity’, in ‘Farewell to an Idea, Episodes from a History of Modernism’, Yale University Press, 1999, p222 / retranslated 2026
[11.02.2026]
David Patten 