Mark Rothko: To Make the Spectator See the World Our Way, and The Essence of Academism
1. To us art is an adventure into an unknown world, which can be explored only by those willing to take the risks.
2. This world of imagination is fancy-free and violently opposed to common sense.
3. It is our function as artists to make the spectator see the world our way not his way.
4. We favor the simple expression of the complex thought. We are for the large shape because it has the impact of the unequivocal. We wish to reassert the picture plane. We are for flat forms because they destroy illusion and reveal truth.
5. It is a widely accepted notion among painters that it does not matter what one paints as long as it is well painted. This is the essence of academism. There is no such thing as good painting about nothing. We assert that the subject is crucial and only that subject-matter is valid which is tragic and timeless. That is why we profess spiritual kinship with primitive and archaic art.
Joint statement by Mark Rothko, Adolph Gottlieb and Barnett Newman; written June 7, 1943, originally published in the New York Times June 13, 1943, quoted from this PDF.
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Entry first published 2009-08-19 15:06, last edited 2009-09-05 16:20
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