Ideas Poem by gershon hepner

Rejecting time and time again
ideas that had been preconceived
is what most artists do and then
reject again once they're received.

Inspired by a drawing by Frank Auerbach in the National Portrait Gallery which is also a self-portrait. Auerbach, born in Berlin in 1931, describes himself as 'a born-again Englishman'. Leon Kossoff once said of his work:

Drawing is a mysterious activity. |Drawing is making one image which is a total commitment and involvement. This only comes after seemingly endless activity before the model or subject, rejecting time and time again ideas which are possible to preconceive. And, whether by scraping off or rubbing down, it is always beginning again, making new images, destroying images that lie, discarding images that are dead.

11/27/02