Palette-able

The time is always right to reinstate painting to its rightful, valuable place in the arts (“The Case for Painting,” by Christopher Knight, April 4).

In the ‘80s, when Artforum magazine declared painting dead, I was amazed at the audacity of the editors. I wrote to dismay to my friend in New York, the late great painter Jack Tworkov, who had shared his first studio with De Kooning: “Painting is dead! Whatever are we going to do?”

“Don’t worry,” Jack replied in his usual relaxed manner. “Painting has been declared dead every five years since I began painting.”

SUSAN MOSS

Los Angeles

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It’s no accident that the traditional definition of “artist” refers to painters. Painting is the purest art form. It is the least collaborative and makes the fewest demands on its audience. As such, it will never die, because of its immediate accessibility to a person of talent with an idea to communicate.

What dies is the inspiration, and artists who have wound up destroying their work are acting out their frustration with being depleted. The frustration itself becomes the new twist on their mode of expression. This is understandable too, I suppose, but when a fresh spirit inhabits a painter, there is not a more divine sensation of creativity known to the artist, or the viewer.

ARNO KEKS

El Monte

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A most timely article. The works of Steven Criqui, Kevin Appel, Ingrid Calame and Michelle Fierro are part of the “1999 Biennial” at the Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach through May 9. Works of Adam Ross and Kim Dingle are displayed in the museum’s permanent collection. Other early career artists in the “1999 Biennial” are Kim Anno, Jaci Den Hartog, Jeremy Kidd, Laurie Reid, Tom Rogeberg and Kathryn Spence.

T.W. STAPLE

Newport Beach