Painting Is The Representation Of Visible Forms.

On The Left Is The Realist Tradition Of The 19th Century, With Its Impulse To Social Description, Radical Criticism And Meditation On Things As They Are... Culminating In Courbet At His Mightiest (the Studio, The Funeral At Ornans And A Portrait Of A Trout That Has More Death In It Than Rubens Could Get In A Whole Crucifixion).

Art Or Talent, For An Artist, Is Merely A Means Of Applying His Personal Faculties To The Ideas And The Things Of The Period In Which He Lives.

I Have Studied The Art Of The Masters And The Art Of The Moderns, Avoiding Any Preconceived System And Without Prejudice. I Have No More Wanted To Imitate The Former Than To Copy The Latter; Nor Have I Thought Of Achieving The Idle Aim Of Art For Art's Sake.

I Am Not One Who Was Born In The Custody Of Wisdom; I Am One Who Is Fond Of Olden Times And Intense In Quest Of The Sacred Knowing Of The Ancients.

When I Am No Longer Controversial, I Will No Longer Be Important