Alvin Loving, Rational Irrationalism, 1969

Narrator: Alvin Loving was fascinated by spatial illusion, and would explore it throughout his career. This interview with the artist was recorded at WFUV radio station in New York, in 1973. 

Alvin Loving: The primary problem I was working with was breaking the picture plane. 

Narrator: By that, he meant that he didn't want the image he was creating to be limited by the flatness of the physical canvas. He was fascinated by the possibility that creating a sense of three-dimensional depth could change a viewer's sense of space—and maybe impact their real, lived experience of the world.

Alvin Loving: I've always felt that composition was really what articulated what any given reality was about. And I think the artist's responsibility is to kind of project on where that reality that he's living in is going to go. That is, if an artist has any responsibility at all it's to kind of prepare people for things that are about to happen to them.

Narrator: [This audio is credited to] Arlene Slavin and Vivienne Thaul Wechter. [The] Interview [was conducted] with Arlene Slavin, Alvin Loving, and Brenda Miller for the Today's World radio series, circa 1973. [as part of] WFUV radio interviews relating to art, 1969-1973. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.