Comparing experimental and conceptual painters

	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.

Copyright © 2007 by Colin Stewart. All rights reserved.