He Who Has Dreamed For Long Resembles

If Modern Painters Feel Qualms About Applying The Term "masterpiece" To Describe A Work Of Capital Importance, This Is Because It Has Come To Convey A Notion Of Perfection: A Notion That Leads To Much Confusion When Applied To Artists Other Than Those Who Made Perfection Their Ideal.

In The Course Of History, All Empires Have Been Created With Premeditation, By An Effort Often Sustained Over Several Generations. Every Power Has Been Roman To A Degree. The United States Is The First Nation To Become The Most Powerful In The World Without Having Sought To Be So. Its Exceptional Energy And Organization Have Never Been Oriented Toward Conquest.

As For The Outside World, The Artist Is Confronted By What He Sees; But What He Sees Is Primarily What He Looks At.

To Understand What The Outside Of An Aquarium Looks Like, It's Better Not To Be A Fish.

Our Characteristic Response To The Mutilated Statue, The Bronze Dug Up From The Earth, Is Revealing. It Is Not That We Prefer Time-worn Bas-reliefs, Or Rusted Statuettes As Such, Nor Is It The Vestiges Of Death That Grip Us In Them, But Those Of Life. Mutilation Is The Scar Left By The Struggle With Time, And A Reminder Of It - Time Which Is As Much A Part Of Ancient Works Of Art As The Material They Are Made Of, And Thrusts Up Through The Fissures, From A Dark Underworld, Where All Is At Once Chaos And Determinism.