What is the most beautiful thing in the world? What in your life is your greatest source of pleasure?

Writing with Paul Thek's questions.

Paul Thek, Untitled (Diver), 1969−70. Synthetic polymer and gesso on newspaper, 22 1/4 × 33 3/16 in. (56.5 × 84.3 cm).

Today I’m thinking about the questions the artist Paul Thek gave to his students at Cooper Union back in the 70s. I first heard about these questions, which he called “teaching notes” from Draw It With Your Eyes Closed: The Art of the Ar…