{"id":14563,"date":"2023-01-11T09:15:13","date_gmt":"2023-01-11T17:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/?p=14563"},"modified":"2023-03-04T12:36:15","modified_gmt":"2023-03-04T20:36:15","slug":"philip-geiger-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/philip-geiger-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"A Conversation With Philip Geiger"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Interview conversation by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jeffreycarr.work\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jeffrey Carr<\/a><\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\">Philip Geiger is a<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>respected and highly accomplished painter known for his domestic interiors, landscapes, and figure paintings.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Receiving his undergraduate education at Washington University in St. Louis and his M.F.A. from Yale University School of Art, he began regularly showing in New York early in his career and has shown extensively in numerous group and solo shows.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">He is represented by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reynoldsgallery.com\/artists\/philip-geiger\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Reynolds Gallery<\/a>, Richmond, Virginia, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hidellbrooks.com\/philip-geiger\">Hidell Brooks Gallery<\/a> in Charlotte, NC and has previously show work at the &nbsp; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tibordenagy.com\/artists\/philip-geiger\">Tibor de Nagy Gallery<\/a> in NYC, NC. with a solo exhibition there in 2007. His paintings are represented in several prominent public collections and have been reviewed by the New York Times, Art in America, ARTnews, and The New Criterion.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>He taught for over thirty years at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, Virginia, before retiring to his current home and studio in Staunton, Virginia.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>We met recently via a Zoom session to discuss his painting practice.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7hhrTPP2zV0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>ArtPneuma<\/strong> Video Interview by: <a href=\"http:\/\/davidcampbellart.com\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">David Campbell<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/jaywalkergallery.com\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jay Walker <\/a>, Filmed by: <a href=\"http:\/\/sunnymillerphoto.com\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sunny Miller<\/a><\/div>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>Jeffrey Carr:<\/strong><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Phil, I just finished listening to a YouTube interview with you from 2012. You discussed how you revise your images heavily while working on them, and how you would sand or scrape down your paintings before repainting.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Do you add figures and other elements into the picture?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Do you do this from life? Or are you doing it from invention?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>Philip Geiger:<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span><\/strong>Well, both. I&#8217;ve become slower. I can work on paintings almost indefinitely by sanding them, by rethinking the composition.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>It\u2019s not an efficient process at all, but I always have dissatisfaction with the image and want to work on it back in the studio for long periods of time.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Then I might return to direct observational at a later date, trying to get something back.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_14565\" style=\"width: 490px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14565\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14565\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"560\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_1.jpg 480w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_1-257x300.jpg 257w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_1-343x400.jpg 343w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14565\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Philip Geiger; <em>Black Mountain Story<\/em>, 2018<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>JC:<\/strong>&nbsp; So, are the figures in these paintings largely invented?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Do you use photographic references?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>PG:<\/strong><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Not much photographic reference. The process might change painting by painting and figure by figure. Some parts might be invented and some might be done directly from observation. I work from models several times a week.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>I schedule a model and work directly into the painting with the model. It always inspires me to work with a painting that I\u2019ve already got going.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_14588\" style=\"width: 490px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_25.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14588\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14588\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_25.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"586\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_25.jpg 480w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_25-246x300.jpg 246w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_25-328x400.jpg 328w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14588\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Philip Geiger; <em>September 24, 2010<\/em>, 22 by 18in.<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>JC:<\/strong>&nbsp; So, you take a painting that you have already got going, and you may have sanded it down or scraped it.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Do you then just sit somebody down in a chair and then paint them into the picture? Isn&#8217;t the space completely different?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>How are you able to integrate the new situation into the existing painting?&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>PG:<\/strong><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>I try to do that. I really like the accidents. I will oftentimes rethink the composition. The figure will be in some new place, or the scale will be new.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Something like that. But that fight, that accident, of putting a figure into an existing painting that wasn&#8217;t planned in the first place, and that may even be in the wrong place, is really motivating.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>It can suggest something new that could happen in the painting, a new discovery. It\u2019s certainly inefficient to keep working and searching like this. But I see the painting as a search. I&#8217;ve never thought that I could plan a painting in advance. I think I would be bored if I planned out a drawing and knew where things were going to go and then went at painting it. And in any case, this would be almost impossible if you work from direct observation because things are changing and the light changes.<\/p>\n<div class=\"gca-column one-half first\"><div id=\"attachment_14600\" style=\"width: 304px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_37.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14600\" class=\"size-ppstandard-med wp-image-14600\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_37-294x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"294\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_37-294x400.jpg 294w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_37-221x300.jpg 221w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_37-754x1024.jpg 754w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_37-768x1043.jpg 768w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_37-442x600.jpg 442w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_37.jpg 1085w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 294px) 100vw, 294px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14600\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Philip Geiger; <em>East Sunbathing<\/em>, 2022 24 by 18in<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"gca-column one-half\"><div id=\"attachment_14572\" style=\"width: 364px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_8.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14572\" class=\"size-ppstandard-med wp-image-14572\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_8-354x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"354\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_8-354x400.jpg 354w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_8-266x300.jpg 266w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_8-907x1024.jpg 907w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_8-768x867.jpg 768w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_8-531x600.jpg 531w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_8.jpg 1145w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 354px) 100vw, 354px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14572\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Philip Geiger; <em>The Perfectionist<\/em>, 2018, 27 by 24in.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<br clear=\"all\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>JC: <\/strong>You&#8217;re telling me&nbsp;that you don&#8217;t work strictly from observation.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>You may incorporate a lot of observation but you&#8217;re working very synthetically. By synthetic, I mean that the process may involve a number of ways of constructing the image that is integrated into the final painting. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>The space in your paintings seems almost totally synthetic, rather than strictly naturalistic. But many of the details seem done from direct observation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>PG:<\/strong> They&#8217;re actual places, but I elaborate on them.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>I love elaborating walls in the studio, corners, moldings, architecture, and floors. In the studio, I sort of feel my way across the space to find some drama in the space, some meaning.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>That search is very slow.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_14597\" style=\"width: 488px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_34.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14597\" class=\"size-landscapepp-med wp-image-14597\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_34-478x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"478\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_34-478x600.jpg 478w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_34-239x300.jpg 239w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_34-319x400.jpg 319w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_34.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 478px) 100vw, 478px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14597\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Philip Geiger; <em>Frederick Street<\/em>, 2018, 22 by 18in<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>JC:<\/strong><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Do you mean that you find the drama and the excitement in the space itself rather than in the figures or situations being depicted?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>I remember seeing one of your paintings where you heavily reworked the image in order to create a certain effect of light across the walls.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>PG:<\/strong><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>The danish painter Wilhelm Hammershoi had this feeling for walls, French doors and the shadows cast by framed paintings or tables. He loved those things and I&#8217;m sure he worked them slowly. I don&#8217;t know if he worked them away from observation or not. But he seems to have elaborated on them. The richness seems important to him, the play of light across those surfaces.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_14579\" style=\"width: 348px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_16.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14579\" class=\"wp-image-14579 size-ppstandard-med\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_16-338x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"338\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_16-338x400.jpg 338w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_16-253x300.jpg 253w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_16-865x1024.jpg 865w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_16-768x909.jpg 768w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_16-507x600.jpg 507w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_16.jpg 885w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 338px) 100vw, 338px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14579\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vilhelm Hammershoi, <em>Living Room with Piano and Woman Dressed in Black<\/em>, 1901<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>JC:<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span><\/strong>To me, it seems that in your paintings, as in Hammershoi, the depiction of space contains and defines the figures rather than just being a backdrop or a setting for the figures. This reminds me of the early Vermeer painting of the Woman reading a Letter. It was restored recently, and the wall behind the woman was removed to reveal a painting behind the figure. To me, this changes entirely the space and so the meaning of the painting. What was your response to this restoration?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>PG:<\/strong> I like it less.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_14587\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_24.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14587\" class=\"wp-image-14587 size-ppstandard-med\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_24-500x328.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"328\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_24-500x328.jpg 500w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_24-300x197.jpg 300w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_24-768x503.jpg 768w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_24-700x459.jpg 700w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_24.jpg 1016w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14587\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Johannes Vermeer, <em>Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window<\/em> c. 1657\u20131659, Oil on canvas, 33 in \u00d7 25.4 in, Gem\u00e4ldegalerie, Dresden<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>JC: <\/strong> So did I. Before the restoration, the wall behind the woman was densely painted and was very beautiful.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>It makes me think of your very painterly touch. Your paintings are not painted with a lot of detail; the detail is evoked rather than described. You don\u2019t just copy; you evoke the form.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>PG: <\/strong><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>That&#8217;s a great compliment. Vermeer has always been a touchstone for me in my work. He finds a universal quality in what was right in front of him, in that room in his house that he worked with over and over again. The same table and the same ermine coat and probably the same model.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>But he was able to find a density and emotion in these ordinary things.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>But his work is not figure-centric. I think of him as looking past the figure and zeroing in on the space between the chair and the wall, or a corner of a room where a basket is hung, or there\u2019s even a nail on the wall.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>These events seem to attract him.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>The figures strike me as almost blank. I love them; they\u2019re absolutely gorgeous.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>But you almost can&#8217;t know them. And in fact, there is a lot of debate about who was the model in his paintings; was it his wife or this or that person?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Identities were removed from them, and the whole place is the drama.<\/p>\n<div class=\"gca-column one-half first\"><div id=\"attachment_14595\" style=\"width: 366px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_32.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14595\" class=\"size-ppstandard-med wp-image-14595\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_32-356x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"356\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_32-356x400.jpg 356w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_32-267x300.jpg 267w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_32-913x1024.jpg 913w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_32-768x862.jpg 768w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_32-535x600.jpg 535w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_32.jpg 934w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 356px) 100vw, 356px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14595\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Johannes Vermeer<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"gca-column one-half\"><div id=\"attachment_14599\" style=\"width: 285px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_36.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14599\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-14599\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_36-275x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"275\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_36-275x300.jpg 275w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_36-768x837.jpg 768w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_36-367x400.jpg 367w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_36-550x600.jpg 550w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_36.jpg 778w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 275px) 100vw, 275px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14599\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Johannes Vermeer<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<br clear=\"all\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>JC: <\/strong> Vermeer did a lot of surprising and unexpected things with scale and size relationships. In one early painting, there is a girl sitting at a table, looking at a figure dressed as a sort of a Cavalier with a<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>huge hat and with his elbow sitting out.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>The perspective is skewed so that he feels enormous while she feels little. You seem to do similar things with scale and size relationships in your paintings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>PG: <\/strong><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>I&#8217;ve never thought of that as a problem in Vermeer\u2019s work. They just seem absolutely perfect to me; each of them is perfectly felt. In that one called <i>The Laughing Girl,<\/i> every bit of it seems so right and so felt that I don&#8217;t think too much about the space or the drawing in them. He did like to layer a dark foreground against a lighter passage or a silhouette shape.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_14586\" style=\"width: 590px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_23.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14586\" class=\"wp-image-14586 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_23.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"580\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_23.jpg 580w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_23-300x248.jpg 300w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_23-483x400.jpg 483w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14586\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Philip Geiger; <em>Three<\/em>, 2010, 24 by 29in.<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>JC: <\/strong> I think that this is true of your work as well.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Expressiveness is created by the scale, the space, or even just the way a wall is worked. You create drama with people walking into a room or walking towards us with another distant figure silhouetted against a window or over in the corner.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>You really feel the drama in the space. Another artist who does this is Edward Hopper.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Hopper\u2019s painting evokes some indefinable meaning that you want to think comes from a figure or some other element in the painting, but it\u2019s about something else.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>It\u2019s about the way he puts together the space.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"gca-column one-half first\"><div id=\"attachment_14570\" style=\"width: 477px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_6.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14570\" class=\"size-ppstandard-med wp-image-14570\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_6-467x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"467\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_6-467x400.jpg 467w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_6-300x257.jpg 300w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_6.jpg 560w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 467px) 100vw, 467px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14570\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">12-Philip Geiger; <em>Percy<\/em>, 2018, 24 by 28in<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"gca-column one-half\"><div id=\"attachment_14591\" style=\"width: 470px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_28.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14591\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14591\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_28.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"460\" height=\"381\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_28.jpg 460w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_28-300x248.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14591\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Philip Geiger; <em>Peru<\/em>, 2007, 28 by 34in.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<br clear=\"all\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>PG: <\/strong> Yeah, it&#8217;s about him. I think both Hopper and Vermeer have a feeling for shapes that is unique.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>I\u2019ve tried to do that.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>To feel the proportions of the divisions inside the painting as having meaning. I often think of Vermeer as being the greatest shape maker. Just the amount of a map against a white wall just seems so right.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>The intervals feel deeply meaningful; it is the measures in between intervals in the painting that makes shapes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>JC: <\/strong> I&#8217;m thinking about Mondrian, who like Vermeer had this incredible sense of interval, where everything feels perfect. But Mondrian made his paintings about just those measurements and took out everything else.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>PG: <\/strong> That\u2019s never as interesting to me as the shapes in Vermeer. I wonder what Vermeer would have said about this. Would he have understood our language of abstraction and of trying to see shapes independently? Was it all intuitive on his part? I wish we could ask him. But you are right; they tried to separate that out in the 20th century.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>The shape intervals in Mondrian don&#8217;t do much for me.<\/p>\n<div class=\"gca-column one-half first\"><div id=\"attachment_14581\" style=\"width: 470px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_18.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14581\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14581\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_18.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"460\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_18.jpg 460w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_18-300x269.jpg 300w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_18-446x400.jpg 446w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14581\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Philip Geiger; <em>Theresa 9 A.M<\/em>., 2007, 36 by 40in<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"gca-column one-half\"><div id=\"attachment_14594\" style=\"width: 344px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_31.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14594\" class=\"size-ppstandard-med wp-image-14594\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_31-334x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"334\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_31-334x400.jpg 334w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_31-250x300.jpg 250w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_31.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 334px) 100vw, 334px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14594\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><br \/>Philip Geiger; <em>Anna Asleep<\/em>, 2002, 34 by 28in<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<br clear=\"all\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>JC: <\/strong><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>I don&#8217;t think painting got any better by trying to be reductivist. For example, there is Saenredam, the dutch artist who did very severe white Church Interiors. Like Mondrian, he had a severely abstracted visual sense. But the intervals and shapes of his church interiors also create emotional responses and even ideas about divine light or reason or probity.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>By contrast, artists like Mondrian aspire to be purely abstract. But that\u2019s obviously not what you are doing.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Are you interested in creating mood or emotion through the use of space and the interactions of shape?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; &nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_14593\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_30.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14593\" class=\"size-ppstandard-med wp-image-14593\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_30-500x361.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"361\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_30-500x361.jpg 500w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_30-300x216.jpg 300w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_30-768x554.jpg 768w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_30-700x505.jpg 700w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_30.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14593\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pieter Saenredam (1597 &#8211; 1665), <em>The Interior of the Grote Kerk at Haarlem<\/em> (1636-7), Oil on oak, 59.5 \u00d7 81.7 cm, National Gallery, UK<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>PG: <\/strong> I don&#8217;t know what I would say about mood because I couldn&#8217;t identify what it is.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>But I have emotional reactions to what I would call rightness in a painting. That&#8217;s why I struggle with it for so long because it isn&#8217;t always there.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>I think that the communication of an interior life that comes through a painting is why we are interested in them.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>It\u2019s something I struggle with, and I think it results in a mood. I am obviously attracted to very muted colors. In my mind, muted tones are more suggestive of light than brilliant, local color.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>And that, as well as an emphasis on value in my work, might create a mood that is different from other kinds of painting.<\/p>\n<div class=\"gca-column one-third first\"><div id=\"attachment_14588\" style=\"width: 256px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_25.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14588\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-14588\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_25-246x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"246\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_25-246x300.jpg 246w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_25-328x400.jpg 328w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_25.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 246px) 100vw, 246px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14588\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Philip Geiger; <em>September 24<\/em>, 2010, 22 by 18in.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"gca-column one-third\"><div id=\"attachment_14580\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_17.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14580\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-14580\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_17-300x251.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"251\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_17-300x251.jpg 300w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_17-478x400.jpg 478w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_17.jpg 574w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14580\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Philip Geiger; <em>Translation<\/em>, 2018, 20 by 24in<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"gca-column one-third\"><div id=\"attachment_14566\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14566\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-14566\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_2-300x252.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"252\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_2-300x252.jpg 300w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_2-1024x859.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_2-768x644.jpg 768w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_2-477x400.jpg 477w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_2-700x587.jpg 700w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_2.jpg 1250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14566\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Philip Geiger; <em>Conversation<\/em>, 2016, 24 by 29in.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<br clear=\"all\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>JC: <\/strong><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>There\u2019s an old idea that color creates moods: brilliant color creates strong emotions and muted, quiet colors create quiet emotions. That might be true, or it might not.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Like you, I\u2019m not even sure what \u201cmood\u201d means.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>The early work of Degas uses low saturation color.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>He keeps the vividness and the intensity down.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Perhaps because of his use of low-saturation colors, his moods are almost indescribable. The color-moods of Degas remind me of your paintings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>PG: <\/strong> There&#8217;s a kind of shimmering beauty in his work that I would describe as being figure-first. His figure drawing is so good that the presence of the figure is always the point of the painting. What he does around them is something to complement the figure and the movement of the figure. It&#8217;s a great challenge for me because I don&#8217;t draw the figure that well; nobody does. I love looking at his work.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_14598\" style=\"width: 290px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_35.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14598\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-14598\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_35-280x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_35-280x300.jpg 280w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_35-954x1024.jpg 954w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_35-768x824.jpg 768w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_35-373x400.jpg 373w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_35-559x600.jpg 559w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_35.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 280px) 100vw, 280px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14598\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Edgar Degas<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"gca-column one-half first\"><div id=\"attachment_14590\" style=\"width: 417px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_27.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14590\" class=\"size-ppstandard-med wp-image-14590\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_27-407x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"407\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_27-407x400.jpg 407w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_27-300x295.jpg 300w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_27.jpg 488w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 407px) 100vw, 407px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14590\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Philip Geiger; <em>Winter<\/em>, 2018, 24 by 24in.<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p2\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"gca-column one-half\"><div id=\"attachment_14574\" style=\"width: 453px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_10.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14574\" class=\"size-ppstandard-med wp-image-14574\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_10-443x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"443\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_10-443x400.jpg 443w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_10-300x271.jpg 300w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_10-1024x925.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_10-768x694.jpg 768w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_10-1536x1387.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_10-664x600.jpg 664w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_10.jpg 1715w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 443px) 100vw, 443px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14574\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Phil Geiger;<em> The Traveler<\/em>, 2007<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p2\"><\/div>\n<br clear=\"all\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>JC: <\/strong> Your pictures are often enveloped with a light I\u2019ve seen in interiors done by other American artists like Thomas Dewing.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>There\u2019s a warm, enveloping glow to these paintings in which everybody exists in a liquid, enveloping honey-colored glow. Do you feel any connection to the many American artists who paint quiet, tonalist interiors, artists like Tarbell or Decamp?<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_14583\" style=\"width: 493px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_20.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14583\" class=\"wp-image-14583 size-ppstandard-med\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_20-483x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"483\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_20-483x400.jpg 483w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_20-300x248.jpg 300w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_20-768x636.jpg 768w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_20-700x580.jpg 700w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_20.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 483px) 100vw, 483px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14583\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Edmund Charles Tarbell (1862-1938), <em>Interior with Mother and Child<\/em> oil on canvas, 25 x 30 in. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"gca-column one-half first\"><div id=\"attachment_14569\" style=\"width: 445px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_5.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14569\" class=\"size-ppstandard-med wp-image-14569\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_5-435x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"435\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_5-435x400.jpg 435w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_5-300x276.jpg 300w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_5-768x707.jpg 768w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_5-652x600.jpg 652w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_5.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 435px) 100vw, 435px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14569\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Philip Geiger; <em>Morning<\/em>, 2018, 24 by 26in.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"gca-column one-half\"><div id=\"attachment_14567\" style=\"width: 420px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14567\" class=\"size-ppstandard-med wp-image-14567\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_3-410x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"410\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_3-410x400.jpg 410w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_3-300x293.jpg 300w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_3.jpg 492w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 410px) 100vw, 410px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14567\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><br \/>Philip Geiger; <em>January<\/em>, 2018, 24 by 24 in.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<br clear=\"all\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>PG: <\/strong> Well, it does look like that. I see the similarity but I don\u2019t look at those artists very much and I&#8217;m actually not very familiar with them. Someone from that time period that I certainly do look at is Vilhelm Hammershoi. I feel more connected to that painting.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>All those Boston painters like Bensen or Tarbell never challenged me enough, I guess. They are not as challenging as looking at a Degas.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Degas may be doing very different things, but it&#8217;s a real challenge to me. I\u2019ve always got a Degas book there in the studio.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>I\u2019ve got the Hammershoi book there, and the Vuillard book.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Those are the books I might look at every morning.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>I do see the similarities with those other painters; there might be a Merrit Chase who would do a beautiful floor or a beautiful sofa.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>But I\u2019ve never looked at them much.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>JC: <\/strong> You are mentioning some classic European painters like Hammershoi and Vuillard.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>But to me, there is something quintessentially American in your painting, and I\u2019m trying to feel where you are in this spectrum.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>I sense a relationship with artists in our tradition, like Edwin Dickinson, for example. How do you connect with someone like that? And we talked about Hopper.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>PG: <\/strong><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Well, Hopper for sure. I&#8217;ve made a huge study of Hopper and I\u2019ve spent a lot of time painting outside. I&#8217;ve looked at all of his works very closely and I respond to Hopper a lot. I love Edwin Dickinson, but I don&#8217;t quite know what to make of it. I think there&#8217;s a great mystery in his work and some real originality in what he did. The extreme tonalness and greyness of the work are attractive to me. It seems almost romantic; his meditations on funereal subjects and death.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I find him fascinating, but I haven&#8217;t found a way to make a lot out of that. Everybody looks at his self-portraits and wants to do some self-portraits. I&#8217;ve done that, maybe inspired by him.<\/p>\n<div class=\"gca-column one-third first\"><div id=\"attachment_14576\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_13.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14576\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-14576\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_13-300x251.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"251\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_13-300x251.jpg 300w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_13-768x644.jpg 768w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_13-477x400.jpg 477w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_13-700x587.jpg 700w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_13.jpg 989w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14576\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Philip Geiger; <em>The Opening<\/em>, 1990, 30 by 36in.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"gca-column one-third\"><div id=\"attachment_14589\" style=\"width: 233px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_26.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14589\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-14589\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_26-223x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"223\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_26-223x300.jpg 223w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_26-297x400.jpg 297w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_26.jpg 345w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 223px) 100vw, 223px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14589\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Philip Geiger; <em>Different Shirt<\/em>, 2006, 24 by 18in.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"gca-column one-third\"><div id=\"attachment_14571\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_7.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14571\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-14571\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_7-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_7-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_7-1020x1024.jpg 1020w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_7-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_7-768x771.jpg 768w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_7-399x400.jpg 399w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_7-598x600.jpg 598w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_7-360x361.jpg 360w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_7.jpg 1159w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14571\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Philip Geiger<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<br clear=\"all\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>JC: <\/strong> We&#8217;ve been talking about historic painters.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>But you and I came of age in a vastly different artistic universe than the one that exists now.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>What are some painters of the seventies and eighties that you feel a real kinship with?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>PG: <\/strong> My teachers William Bailey and Lennart Anderson remain models for me. I admire what they did in their work.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Both of them pursued their vision whether the artworld paid any attention to them or not.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>They pursued their vision fearlessly their whole lives.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>There was a recent exhibition of Lennart Anderson, and he\u2019s getting some attention. I love his work, and both of their examples are important to me.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>There\u2019s a painting that was the centerpiece of the recent Anderson exhibition that is owned by the University of Virginia. It\u2019s called <i>St. Mark\u2019s Place<\/i>. It\u2019s an early New York street painting with three main figures.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>One figure is leaning from a pole; he painted that by looking at himself in a mirror.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Another figure is a man with a dog, and there is a woman looking back. I looked a lot at that painting when they would hang it in the 1980s, and it had a big impact on me. The putting together of these three figures implied dense psychology.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>They seem to be aware of each other,<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>even though they weren&#8217;t interacting or doing anything together.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>The University of Virginia also owns the William Bailey painting called <i>Portrait of S,<\/i> which is based on a Balthus. Both of these paintings were important to me, and that was a moment in time that was important.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Bailey would say to his students, \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid to be influenced by other painters\u201d.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>He obviously felt that looking at painters like Balthus or Courbet was perfectly legitimate for artists to do, and to make a variation on something like Courbet\u2019s <i>Women in the Grass<\/i>.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>I\u2019ve always liked this example; it seems to free me.<\/p>\n<div class=\"gca-column one-half first\"><div id=\"attachment_13834\" style=\"width: 251px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/3-stMarksPlaceLA.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13834\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13834\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/3-stMarksPlaceLA-241x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"241\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/3-stMarksPlaceLA-241x300.jpg 241w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/3-stMarksPlaceLA-322x400.jpg 322w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/3-stMarksPlaceLA-483x600.jpg 483w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/3-stMarksPlaceLA-360x450.jpg 360w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/3-stMarksPlaceLA.jpg 528w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 241px) 100vw, 241px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-13834\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lennart Anderson, <em>St. Mark\u2019s Place<\/em>, 1969-1976, Oil on canvas, 93 13\/16 x 74 1\/8 in.\u00a9 Estate of Lennart Anderson Courtesy of the Fralin Museum of Art.<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\">.<\/div>\n<div class=\"gca-column one-half\"><div id=\"attachment_14582\" style=\"width: 246px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_19.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14582\" class=\"wp-image-14582 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_19-236x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"236\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_19-236x300.jpg 236w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_19-806x1024.jpg 806w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_19-768x975.jpg 768w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_19-1210x1536.jpg 1210w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_19-315x400.jpg 315w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_19-473x600.jpg 473w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_19.jpg 1279w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 236px) 100vw, 236px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14582\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">William Bailey<em>, Portrait of S<\/em>, 1979-80, Oil on Canvas, 52&#215;42 in. Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginea, Charlottesville<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><\/div>\n<br clear=\"all\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>JC: <\/strong><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Painters often have their still life objects all around the studio, and arrange them into compositions to paint.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>There are several great Lennart Anderson still lifes like this. But William Bailey once joked that he had all of his still-life objects in his pocket. I think he meant that his still-life objects were more invented than observed, and were more about purely formal visual relationships than about actual objects. Bailey\u2019s meticulously painted backgrounds even make me think of a Brice Marden. In painting like this, the subject matter is often just a pretext. Do you think of yourself as mostly a formal painter, looking for formal solutions? Or do you see yourself in some other way?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>PG: <\/strong> I don&#8217;t want to be a formalist.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>I would be an abstract painter if I did. I am in love with the real world. I think that it&#8217;s a great starting point for making a painting. I want it in there; all of the rich complexity and interpretive possibilities of subject matter. I have an affection for people and I want to get that into the painting.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>The places we live in can reflect our interior life and are part of it. I think that\u2019s worth highlighting and making paintings about.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>The world in front of us is a really rich subject; our lives, our houses, the town I live in, my life.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>I think the ideology of modernism has dried out painting. It became reductive by trying to make it just about the elements of painting in a more and more pure way.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>I think all this rich accidentalness of our lives, and the fact that we psychologize paintings and see ourselves in paintings and identify with paintings and have emotions about the figures in paintings, is all a necessary part of the richness.<\/p>\n<div class=\"gca-column one-half first\"><div id=\"attachment_14592\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_29.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14592\" class=\"size-ppstandard-med wp-image-14592\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_29-400x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_29-400x400.jpg 400w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_29-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_29-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_29-360x361.jpg 360w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_29.jpg 470w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14592\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Philip Geiger; <em>The White Dress<\/em>, 1989, 18 by 12in.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"gca-column one-half\"><div id=\"attachment_14585\" style=\"width: 366px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_22.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14585\" class=\"size-ppstandard-med wp-image-14585\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_22-356x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"356\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_22-356x400.jpg 356w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_22-267x300.jpg 267w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_22.jpg 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 356px) 100vw, 356px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14585\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Philip Geiger<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<br clear=\"all\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>JC: <\/strong><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>A lot of the paintings I see by younger artists reflect gender or racial concerns or are satirical, ironic, or humorous. I\u2019m told that younger artists often feel their art should address social or political issues. Their subject matters are often very witty or even alarming. But the subject matters of your paintings seem very quiet and understated. I think of an artist like John Koch who paints similarly understated subject matter.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>You depict young women sitting quietly at tables, women sleeping, figures moving through a room, light flowing over a figure from a window, or the occasional suburban landscape. And you and I both frequently depict women in our pictures. That men often depict women has been a source of controversy.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>What is this about?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>PG: <\/strong> Just to address that issue, I see my paintings as celebratory. I know there is some critic out there who won\u2019t see my paintings that way and could interpret them with some dark story, but I see them as celebratory. I love who it is that I\u2019m painting, either men or women. People in places is a subject that suggests an opportunity to make a painting. I like the kind of space of figurative painting where you don\u2019t know exactly what is happening. Those are evocative to me. John Koch\u2019s work can be at times a bit literal. In Koch\u2019s painting, we know what is happening. I like the surprises and accidents in painting, where we get to make our own meaning; the idea of a picture about being in between things happening\u2026 or when something has just happened, or is going to happen and it\u2019s not defined. This open endedness fires my imagination. <\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_14573\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_9.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14573\" class=\"wp-image-14573 size-ppstandard-med\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_9-500x301.jpg\" alt=\"John Koch, My Studio\" width=\"500\" height=\"301\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_9-500x301.jpg 500w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_9-300x180.jpg 300w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_9-768x462.jpg 768w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_9-266x160.jpg 266w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_9-700x421.jpg 700w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_9.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14573\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Koch(1909 \u2013 1978),&nbsp; <em>My Studio, <\/em>ca. 1952, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"gca-column one-half first\"><div id=\"attachment_14584\" style=\"width: 473px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_21.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14584\" class=\"size-ppstandard-med wp-image-14584\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_21-463x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"463\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_21-463x400.jpg 463w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_21-300x259.jpg 300w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_21.jpg 555w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 463px) 100vw, 463px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14584\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Philip Geiger; <em>Virginia<\/em>, 2018, 24 by 28in.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"gca-column one-half\"><div id=\"attachment_14578\" style=\"width: 324px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_15.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14578\" class=\"size-ppstandard-med wp-image-14578\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_15-314x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"314\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_15-314x400.jpg 314w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_15-235x300.jpg 235w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_15-470x600.jpg 470w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_15.jpg 627w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 314px) 100vw, 314px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14578\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Philip Geiger; <em>4 p.m.<\/em> 2001, 24\u201d by 18in.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<br clear=\"all\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>JC: <\/strong><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>In your paintings, you might have someone at a table, and there might be some objects on the table. But it\u2019s not a depiction of a table after breakfast, a conversation, or some other very specific event. I remember a painting of yours with a deep space in which there is a silhouetted figure, but it&#8217;s never a story about somebody opening the door and welcoming the guests. You never seem to tell little stories in your paintings. As you said, they&#8217;re very ambiguous. They aren&#8217;t people just posing, but at the same time, there isn&#8217;t really a story in there that I can discern.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>PG: <\/strong> As for myself, I sometimes see a kind of conversation or correspondence between elements. I want to have the appearance of a real place. This is why I don&#8217;t paint absolutely anything. I want the environment to be clear &#8211; this is a dining room &#8211; but the situation to be less clear. So I will do a chair and a person or a flower and a person or a window and a person, and I will put these two things in a relationship with each other that would be surprising, an imaginative association or non-sequitur. The person and the junk on the table; you bounce between one and the other. And they begin to have something to do with each other or belong to each other in some way. Those are the kinds of things that interest me as I\u2019m setting the painting up. Does the back of that chair relate to the figure, so that it will be dramatic enough that we move from this to that? Without it being a literal narrative, these pairings would seem to me to suggest a kind of meaning in the setup that would be surprising. I see that in Vuillard, where a figure will be placed somewhere you don\u2019t expect them to be in the painting. He\u2019ll make us really contemplate a big old chair in the foreground, and he makes us really study it. There will be some pattern on the floor, and he\u2019ll make a lot out of it. The chair or the floor become as interesting as the person. This is very appealing to me. This multiplicity distinguishes an image from a portrait, it\u2019s now an interior drama.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_14577\" style=\"width: 435px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_14.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14577\" class=\"size-ppstandard-med wp-image-14577\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_14-425x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"425\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_14-425x400.jpg 425w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_14-300x282.jpg 300w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_14.jpg 510w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 425px) 100vw, 425px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14577\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Philip Geiger, <em>Witch Trials<\/em>, 2018<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>JC: <\/strong><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>I remember a Vuillard painting with a woman sitting, as you said, in a little corner of the painting. He put a little orange piece of light on her nose and you end up looking at that as much as you do at the woman.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>PG: <\/strong> It&#8217;s indirection,<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>I like indirection and painting where you see something like that.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>We were talking about Degas, where he will have some model bathing but then you&#8217;ll see this pattern that he&#8217;s layered in the background that&#8217;s absolutely musically beautiful with layers of warms and cools laid upon each other.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>You leave the figure to look at this pattern. It&#8217;s a kind of indirection in making the image.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>JC: <\/strong><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>With Degas, it is always the unexpected scene.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Instead of the model facing you, you are looking down at her back from a high point of view, so that it is an unfamiliar view.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>In the great painting of the <i>Belelli family<\/i>,<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Degas depicts a mother and her little girl staring off into space while visually being separated from the figure of a man sitting to the right.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>There is a division right between the two areas of the picture.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Lennart Anderson\u2019s <i>Street<\/i> painting is also dramatic, maybe his only example of doing this.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>The painting has that wagon tipping over with people running, and the girl coming out of the door with her mouth open.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Have you ever painted something that was deliberately dramatic or making a statement in that way?<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_14601\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_38.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14601\" class=\"wp-image-14601 size-ppstandard-med\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_38-500x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_38-500x400.jpg 500w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_38-300x240.jpg 300w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_38-768x614.jpg 768w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_38-700x560.jpg 700w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_38.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14601\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Edgar Degas, <em>The Bellelli Family<\/em>, (1858 &#8211; 1869), oil on canvas, 78 x 9in., Mus\u00e9e d&#8217;Orsay<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>PG: <\/strong> Well I think of the light as being dramatic, and I\u2019ve painted some very dark paintings in which people are definitely in shadow. Lennart Anderson painted a man in midair jumping out of a building in what I guess was a suicide. I can&#8217;t imagine doing that. I&#8217;ve never done anything like that, starting with something as literal as that. But I like the idea of divided paintings, like the Degas painting of the Bellelli family.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Paintings that divide themselves into parts with people doing different things in different parts of the painting.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>That suggests a drama that may be less dramatic than a divorce but suggests an attention or awareness across the space.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>I like the idea of dividing a painting in half and having two sides.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>JC: <\/strong><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>You have a painting of a guy coming up out of a stairwell towards us on the right side of the painting, and right across on the other side of the painting is a deep space with people continuing to a distant window. This is creating drama with space and light and pictorial organization, and not with dramatic subject matter.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>This is like what Degas does. By contrast, there are lots of contemporary artists who are doing wonderful work with very dramatic subject matters; wildly inventive paintings, sexual satire, and social commentary.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Seemingly everything except straightforward depictions of their immediate environment.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>What do you think about all that?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>PG: <\/strong> Well, it&#8217;s just not me, you know?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>I like the idea that art doesn&#8217;t have to be all the same. We all don&#8217;t have to do the same thing.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>The examples we\u2019ve been talking about are what I\u2019m most interested in. I have great respect for those other artists but it&#8217;s just not my temperament.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>I can\u2019t imagine doing something like that.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>I think of the subjects in my work as being much quieter; not operatic or extremely dramatic. I like Hammershoi or Morandi.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Something as quiet as that: just the relationships of this object to that object seems very meaningful to me. I&#8217;ve never thought of painting as being a great vehicle for social commentary.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Some people can do wildly expressive paintings with heavily loaded subject matters.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>But I think this can also get you drawn away from what is really most expressive in painting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>JC: <\/strong> How important is content for us painters? There\u2019s a show up now of Philip Guston, an artist who addressed socially relevant and controversial subject matters.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Do we have any kind of responsibility to make socially-conscious paintings?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Are paintings made for an audience, or is it just Art for Art\u2019s sake?&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>PG: <\/strong><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>I don&#8217;t quite agree with the dichotomy that you&#8217;re setting up here because I am very sympathetic to work that wants to have a moral core. I think painting that pursues beauty in the quiet sense that we are talking about is maybe the most moral kind of painting. Paintings that might deal with topical issues like the <i>Guernica<\/i>, for example, are just very different.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>It\u2019s not my temperament to do the <i>Guernica<\/i>. But I think that pursuing authenticity and beauty in the quiet way that we might associate with Vuillard, someone who didn\u2019t leave his apartment much, who painted his direct surroundings, is as morally engaged as Picasso\u2019s <i>Guernica<\/i>.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>I think Vuillard is searching for a form of the Good.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>He\u2019s making a proposition about the form of the Good that ends up being more universal than the Guernica.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>I think that there is more than one way to have a moral core to the activity that we are doing.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>I don\u2019t like this dichotomy of it being either Art for Art\u2019s Sake or it being like the <i>Guernica<\/i>, addressing war and peace and current events.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>I think the great thing about the art world now is that you can pursue one or the other, according to your temperament.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>We don&#8217;t all have to do the same thing.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>A painter like Ingres, for example, has dug deep into his ideas of beauty and interior authenticity as it is connected to beauty. That\u2019s one of the greatest achievements an artist can make and is one of the most moral contributions an artist can make. I think Ingres did something new by extending human awareness and capacity in the pursuit of what he did so successfully. I wouldn&#8217;t want to compare myself to Ingres.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>But I admire that as much as I admire Picasso painting the <i>Guernica<\/i>.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>I think that in the long run, it may mean more.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_14596\" style=\"width: 641px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_33.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14596\" class=\"size-landscapepp-med wp-image-14596\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_33-631x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"631\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_33-631x600.jpg 631w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_33-300x285.jpg 300w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_33-421x400.jpg 421w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/p-geiger_33.jpg 750w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 631px) 100vw, 631px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14596\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Philip Geiger; <em>House<\/em>, 2016<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>JC: <\/strong><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>You&#8217;re equating Beauty and morality.<br \/>\n<strong>PG: <\/strong> Yes!<br \/>\n<strong>JC: <\/strong><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>And that beauty itself has a moral force.<br \/>\n<strong>PG: <\/strong><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Yes!<br \/>\n<strong>JC: <\/strong><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>I&#8217;m going to ask you something which I think would provoke a lot of painters.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Is your subject matter about beauty?<br \/>\n<strong>PG: <\/strong><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>I&#8217;m trying.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>I think I&#8217;m trying. I think that that&#8217;s the connection. It&#8217;s absurd to compare myself to Ingres or Degas or to their great achievements of beauty. But that is what motivates me.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>That is what gets me turned on to make a painting.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>We&#8217;re connected to that. Why else would you go through all of this if you don\u2019t get to be in proximity to beauty? It\u2019s not very good as social commentary.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Hopefully, we give it a new visible form that you can communicate with somebody else. I think that&#8217;s at the center. We wouldn\u2019t be going about this backward sort of activity for any other reason.<br \/>\n<strong>JC: <\/strong><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>That&#8217;s a perfect ending Phil. Thanks for sharing your insights and experience and for your wonderful paintings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Excerpt from the conversation (Read the &#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/philip-geiger-conversation\/\">full interview conversation here<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Jeffrey Carr:  I think that this is true of your work as well.  Expressiveness is created by the scale, the space, or even just the way a wall is worked. You create drama with people walking into a room or walking towards us with another distant figure silhouetted against a window or over in the corner.  You really feel the drama in the space. Another artist who does this is Edward Hopper.  Hopper\u2019s painting evokes some indefinable meaning that you want to think comes from a figure or some other element in the painting, but it\u2019s about something else.  It\u2019s about the way he puts together the space.<\/p>\n<p>Philip Geiger: Yeah, it\u2019s about him. I think both Hopper and Vermeer have a feeling for shapes that is unique.  I\u2019ve tried to do that.  To feel the proportions of the divisions inside the painting as having meaning. I often think of Vermeer as being the greatest shape maker. Just the amount of a map against a white wall just seems so right.  The intervals feel deeply meaningful; it is the measures in between intervals in the painting that makes shapes.<\/p>\n<p>JC: I\u2019m thinking about Mondrian, who like Vermeer had this incredible sense of interval, where everything feels perfect. But Mondrian made his paintings about just those measurements and took out everything else.<\/p>\n<p>PG: That\u2019s never as interesting to me as the shapes in Vermeer. I wonder what Vermeer would have said about this. Would he have understood our language of abstraction and of trying to see shapes independently? Was it all intuitive on his part? I wish we could ask him. But you are right; they tried to separate that out in the 20th century.  The shape intervals in Mondrian don\u2019t do much for me.<\/p>\n<p>JC:   I don\u2019t think painting got any better by trying to be reductivist. For example, there is Saenredam, the dutch artist who did very severe white Church Interiors. Like Mondrian, he had a severely abstracted visual sense. But the intervals and shapes of his church interiors also create emotional responses and even ideas about divine light or reason or probity.  By contrast, artists like Mondrian aspire to be purely abstract. But that\u2019s obviously not what you are doing.  Are you interested in creating mood or emotion through the use of space and the interactions of shape?   <\/p>\n<p>PG: I don\u2019t know what I would say about mood because I couldn\u2019t identify what it is.  But I have emotional reactions to what I would call rightness in a painting. That\u2019s why I struggle with it for so long because it isn\u2019t always there.  I think that the communication of an interior life that comes through a painting is why we are interested in them.  It\u2019s something I struggle with, and I think it results in a mood. I am obviously attracted to very muted colors. In my mind, muted tones are more suggestive of light than brilliant, local color.  And that, as well as an emphasis on value in my work, might create a mood that is different from other kinds of painting.<\/p>\n<p>Read the &#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/philip-geiger-conversation\/\">full interview conversation here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":14588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"full-width-content","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,6,10,13,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-2-after-lead","category-contemporary-realism","category-figure-painting","category-interiors","category-masters-of-perceptual-painting","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14563"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14629,"href":"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14563\/revisions\/14629"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}