|
|
SEEKER
|
FINDER
|
|
|
Experimental innovator
|
Conceptual innovator
|
|
|
|
|
|
Archetype
|
Old master
|
Young genius
|
|
Prime example
|
Paul Cézanne
|
Pablo Picasso
|
|
Quote
|
“I seek.”
-- Cézanne
|
“I don’t seek. I find.”
-- Picasso
|
|
|
|
|
|
Characteristics
|
|
|
|
When they typically do their best work
|
Later in career.
|
Early in career.
|
|
Length of time devoted to creating their best work
|
Extended period, as the artist strives to improve gradually.
|
Sudden breakthrough.
|
|
Subject matter of their paintings
|
Often the same subject, attempted again and again.
|
Varied
|
|
Their goals
|
Lofty but hard to describe. The career of a seeker is often spent in pursuit of a single ambitious, vaguely defined objective.
|
Specific. Goals for a particular work can be stated precisely in advance.
|
|
Their methods
|
They work inductively – from the bottom up – drawing new general principles from extended observation and experimentation.
|
They work deductively – from the top down – creating artwork that embodies new ideas or new deductions from general principles.
|
|
How they prepare for a painting
|
They rarely make preparatory sketches because each work leads to the next.
|
They often make preparatory sketches. Sometimes they make all major decisions before beginning to paint and, as a result, the actual execution of the painting is perfunctory.
|
|
How they evaluate their paintings
|
The imprecision of their goals leaves them troubled. They doubt the significance of their achievements. They are perfectionists, often frustrated.
|
Because each artwork has a precise goal, they are often satisfied in having achieved it and then move on to other goals.
|
