50TH ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION AT THE TERRAIN GALLERY   [ to return click here ]

Robert Henry, Blue Magic, 2001, oil on hypro

      I believe that the statement below relates to Eli Siegel’s thoughts.

      Form and content become problematic when form and content are thought of as separate and when either one precedes the other. I think that my work is most personal, original, and profound when the subject, the content, the relationships (which all can be thought of as elements of the form, the composition of the work) appear simultaneously. In order to accomplish this I have found that it is useful to misdirect, pretend, sham, ignore, and distract. I want form—I think subject. How does a subject develop? Through distracted play with forms. In other words I mess around with the materials, with made-up games, with composition, in order to develop subject matter.

      That subject matter contributes to the meaning. They come out of the manipulation of form and those forms also have meaning in themselves.