December 2017
Intermediate to advanced
208 pages
3h 39m
English
Successive approximation is a process whereby the artist makes statements that he or she then continually corrects, gradually arriving at a finished statement. The work alternates between creative generation and critical assessment. It proceeds as both a response to the subject and a response to what has already been achieved in the work.
Prior to the late nineteenth century, artists concealed the process of successive approximation in their finished work. The idea that a work of art could incorporate the record of these changes gradually took hold during Impressionism, with its immediate and fresh technique. The Post-Impressionists took things further. In the mature work of Paul Cézanne (1839–1906), the artist made ...