interview with PETER SCHUYFF
by BILL POWERS
since the late ’80s,
the abstract artist has made waves
with his mind-bending visuality and his graphic,
ironic twists on avant-garde painting
BILL POWERS — When I interviewed Mark Grotjahn, he made a distinction between abstract painting and nonobjective art. Nonobjective art has no direct correlation to the real world — like a Mondrian, for example.
PETER SCHUYFF — Maybe he was talking about the difference between a painting and a picture? My friend and favorite artist Neil Campbell refers to his work as “pictures,” and he makes minimal, formal abstraction much in the spirit of a John McLaughlin.
BILL POWERS — Why does he call them pictures?
PETER SCHUYFF — Because they’re purely visual. In my case, I have a relationship with the back of my paintings. I’m very fussy about them as objects. But I…