I am thrilled to interview well known professional artist Bob Kessel. His art is in many Museums and fine art collections. I first saw his artwork up close at his one-man show titled “ARTWORKS ASSEMBLE!”at the MoCCA (Museum of Comic & Cartoon Art) in New York City in 2012. I thoroughly enjoyed his take on super hero comic book characters reimagined as fine art.
Meeting in his loft space in Connecticut, I was pleased to find Bob Kessel a gregarious and erudite speaker.

You have been a commercial illustrator for decades. Your work was regularly in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and magazines and newspapers worldwide. What is the difference between “illustration” and “Fine Art”?

New York Times illustration of Roger Federer by Bob Kessel

The difference between “illustration” and “fine art” is time. I read about a study done that found editorial Illustrations are viewed for an average of 2.3 seconds, the illustration must be instantly understandable, then the page is turned, the illustration already forgotten. I had to have this in mind when making illustrations. The crucial thing was to be instantly understood given the viewers limited time and attention.

“Fine Art” on the other hand, requires the element of time.
A novel demands concentrated attention for days.
A movie requires concentrated attention for hours.
Even a song requires concentrated attention for minutes.
Yet people typically only glance at “Fine Art” for a few seconds. This is like glancing at the cover of a novel without reading it, and saying, “I don’t get it”.

I think that because of advertising, people have been spoon fed easily digestible tiny bits of information for so long that they have lost the ability to give more complex things the time they require to be understood.

Fine Art is more like books than TV. You get out what you put in.
Books are deeper than TV, but not as popular because they require more intellectual commitment. More time and effort are needed for books than TV, but the payoff in books is greater. It is the same with fine art.

An old joke- Why is TV called a medium?
Because it is never rare or well done.

Let’s talk about your fine art, where are you going with your artworks?

A famous author once described writing as driving down an unknown road at night and being only able to see as far as your headlights.

So, the road may take an unexpected turn, or perhaps go off a cliff?

Haha, yes. Or, perhaps the road just goes on forever without reaching anywhere. It reminds me of the 1950’s movie “The Wild One” starring Marlon Brando. He is the leader of a motor cycle gang that pulls into a small town. An old man asks him, “Where are you going?” To which he replies, “Going somewhere is for squares, we just go!” 

That explains the picture you made of Brando.

MARLON BRANDO (The Wild One) by Bob Kessel

Yes, that is to remind me of that movie quote.

So, you’re saying that the journey is the thing?

Yes, for a creative person, whether it is a writer, musician or artist, there really is no “where” to get to. Just the daily life of plying ones craft.

Are there any famous artists in particular that you base your work on?

You know the saying “What would Jesus do?”, well I always think, “What would Miles Davis do?”. For those that knew him, the answer would be “Heroin”.

But, aside from that joke, he was always experimenting, reinventing, growing and improving his craft. He was responsible for driving the direction of music for decades. He had opportunities to sell out, but kept true to his ideals.

KIND OF BLUE TRIANGLES (Miles Davis) by Bob Kessel

They say people’s lives are either held up as an example, or shown as a cautionary tale. Miles was both. What I am saying is, I try to follow his example of being true to his art, but watch out for the drugs. I myself don’t use them. I like to quote Salvador Dali, “I don’t need drugs, I am drugs”.

I love that diamond shaped Dali picture you made with a naked woman as his nose. An ode to surrealism.

SALVADOR DALI by Bob Kessel

Thanks. For the life of me, I can’t figure where my ideas come from. After I make a picture, I am as amazed as everyone else.

Well, that leads to my next question, “Why do your artworks look like they do?”

That is like asking me, “why are you the way you are?”. I don’t think any of us know that answer. Also, if I had turned right instead of left yesterday, would I be a completely different person today? We are shaped by the untold millions of decisions we make every day. The artwork is the same. Infinite decisions made each time influence future choices. I have been trying to be more aware of these decisions as I get older.

Next question. Why do you do so many pictures about art history?

I have a friend that is crazy about baseball. He knows the names of every player and their statistics. He collects baseball cards.

I am crazy about art. That is my passion. I can name all the artists and their pictures. I read about their lives. I collect their quotes. Knowing this about me makes it not strange at all that I have spent a considerable amount of time about art history.

Note that I am drawing about art history, not writing about it. That is a crucial difference between me and art history academics.

The Yellow House in Arles by Bob Kessel

I see the quote by William Carlos Williams on your wall that reads,

“There is no comment on pictures but pictures,
on music but music, on poems but poetry.
If you do, you do. If you don’t, you don’t.
And that’s all there is to that.”

It is like the old saying, “talking about music is like dancing about architecture”. The truest comments on music are by other musicians through their own music. And by extension, comments on art are made by the artworks made by other artists. I have done this not only by the styles I have chosen but in a “meta” way, by the subject matter as well.

So, can you tell us how do you make your art?

people that are obsessed with talking about the craft of art are trying to avoid talking about the true topic of art, the content. An author of a novel isn't asked, "Do you write longhand or type? What is your typing technique? How many words per minute can you type? What type of paper is your novel printed on?".

I’m sure Miles Davis never found it necessary to go down into the audience at one of his shows and explain in detail the meaning of jazz or how he came up with his songs. It is not the time or place to try to explain the reasons for jazz. The answer to your questions are all in the music. To quote Miles Davis when asked what is jazz (and I’m paraphrasing here), “Why don’t you shut the fuck up and listen”.

After saying all that, the short answer is, I use a computer. Of course, I am old enough to have drawn by hand for decades before personal computers were invented. When computers came into use, I was one of the earliest adopters. The computer gives me exactly what I want to achieve with my artwork.

A longer answer is I have been surprised to find that nowhere are people as stuck on tradition as in art. Musicians understand technological innovation. No one says, “That's not music because he's using an electric guitar instead of a lute!". Whatever instruments necessary to achieve the desired effect is acceptable. The bottom line, is the music any good?

As William M Ivins, Jr., Curator of Prints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for over 30 years noted at his retirement,

"As we look back from the middle of the twentieth century all the kind of talk and opinion seems very silly, for it has become obvious that what makes a medium artistically important is not any quality of the medium itself but the qualities of mind and hand its user brings to it.... I have sometimes wondered whether there is any field of art collecting which is more hidebound and hamstrung by arbitrary definitions than that of prints."

“If I were rewriting my criticisms, I would concentrate on the intellectual and imaginative background of the work that produced it. The rest is bookkeeping.”

How would you describe your art?

Look at a drawing by Michelangelo, for example. This is considered “realistic”. No matter how "realistic" a drawing, it is only a cypher for reality.
3D objects are flattened to 2D, perspective is faked, objects are really not surrounded with lines. “Realistic" is a translation, just one with recognized conventions. As Picasso said, “What you see is not the truth, but only the lie you have become accustomed to.”

My pictures blur the line between those old conventions, positive and negative space, the illusion of depth. In a way it is like an actor in a movie suddenly looking out to the audience and breaking the forth wall, acknowledging that this is just a movie. While you look at my art and see a recognizable thing and perceive depth, I am winking at the viewer and saying, “look! This is completely flat. It is nothing but lines on paper!”

The Italian futurist painters at the turn of the twentieth century found themselves, as did all painters, competing with movies for the publics attention. The movies have it all over paintings because they move and paintings do not. The futurists answer was to create a style of art that mimicked motion by using repeating shapes and multiple lines to fool the eye into thinking it saw motion.

Futurismo Matisse Goldfish by Bob Kessel

I cannot make a still picture move, but instead I move the viewers mind. In my pictures I try to create visual motion by making a picture that at first glance looks totally abstract, then upon further viewing, one sees the subject matter, and the picture changes from one of nothing (abstract) to one of something (representational).

Artist Models Long Hair by Bob Kessel

Can you tell me about your latest art series?

My newest art series is titled “Serviette Union”. I like to make each series within a certain color range. This makes the collection when viewed together in a room more powerful than separately.

For example, “Artworks Assemble!” series was all heavy black line with primary colors red, yellow and blue.

SUPERNACULAR by Bob Kessel

The “Southwest” series is made of no lines and secondary colors purple, orange and green.

SAWTOOTH MOUNTAINS by Bob Kessel

For the “Serviette Union” series, I made every picture with exactly the same colors. A soft brown color with blue dots in places which from a distance make the brown read as gray, the white of the paper plays a big part. Serviette is French for towel which appears in all the pictures as the central theme. How can I make many pictures with the same colors, subject matter, size and shape, all different yet all appear to have a union of vision.

By so severely limiting myself I was able to concentrate on not what to do but how to do each picture differently yet the same. I think I have shown that no matter how much one is limited, there is still an infinite range of possibilities.

Bob Kessel then showed me the pictures in the series. I was truly amazed how wonderful they were. I was not allowed to photograph them, but he did send me a few select pictures from the series to use in my interview.

WHITE CLOTH (SERVIETTE UNION series) by Bob Kessel 

I left the studio feeling thrilled and somewhat enlightened from meeting someone so focused on his art. Bob laughed and then told me that his friends say he is “quote crazy” but he said he wanted to leave me with one last quote that he said exemplified his life.

"The greatest danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark."
- Michelangelo