New needs need new techniques. And the modern artists have found new ways and new means of making their statements ... the modern painter cannot express this age, the airplane, the atom bomb, the radio, in the old forms of the Renaissance or of any other past culture. |
Painting is self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is. |
The modern artist is working with space and time, and expressing his feelings rather than illustrating. |
The modern artist…is working and expressing an inner world – in other words – expressing the energy, the motion, and other inner forces. |
The painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. |
The strangeness will wear off and I think we will discover the deeper meanings in modern art. |
Today painters do not have to go to a subject matter outside of themselves. Most modern painters work from a different source. They work from within. |
What does the painting mean? |
When I am in a painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It is only after a sort of 'get acquainted' period that I see what I have been about. I have no fears about making changes, destroying the image, etc, because the painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well. |
When I am painting I have a general notion as to what I am about. I can control the flow of paint: there is no accident. |
When I say artist I mean the man who is building things -- creating molding the earth -- whether it be the plains of the west -- or the iron ore of Penn. It's all a big game of construction -- some with a brush -- some with a shovel -- some choose a pen. |
When I'm painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It's only after a get acquainted period that I see what I've been about. I've no fears about making changes for the painting has a life of its own. |