I've Never Believed In God, But I

I Know Now That He Who Hopes To Be Universal In His Art Must Plant In His Own Soil. Great Art Is Like A Tree, Which Grows In A Particular Place And Has A Trunk, Leaves, Blossoms, Boughs, Fruit, And Roots Of Its Own. The More Native Art Is, The More It Belongs To The Entire World, Because Taste Is Rooted In Nature. When Art Is True, It Is One With Nature. This Is The Secret Of Primitive Art And Also Of The Art Of The Mastersmichelangelo, Czanne, Seurat, And Renoir. The Secret Of My Best Work Is That It Is Mexican.

Art Is Like Ham-it Nourishes People.

Every Good Composition Is Above All A Work Of Abstraction. All Good Painters Know This. But The Painter Cannot Dispense With Subjects Altogether Without His Work Suffering Impoverishment.

All Art Is Propaganda. ... The Only Difference Is The Kind Of Propaganda. Since Art Is Essential For Human Life, It Can't Just Belong To The Few. Art Is The Universal Language, And It Belongs To All Mankind. All Painters Have Been Propagandists Or Else They Have Not Been Painters. ... Every Artist Who Has Been Worth Anything In Art Has Been Such A Propagandist. ... Every Strong Artist Has Been A Propagandist. I Want To Be A Propagandist And I Want To Be Nothing Else. ... I Want To Use My Art As A Weapon.

The Artist Must Try To Raise The Level Of Taste Of The Masses, Not Debase Himself To The Level Of Unformed And Impoverished Taste.