36
PARTISAN REVIEW
appeals to the smaller part of the public. Better hopes concern only a
future too far to consider.
The best chances for popularization of abstract painting would stay
with architecture. The emphasis on plastic values makes them suit the
wall easily. They develop the space of the building and prove agreeable
to a much wider public than on an easel. Collaboration with architects,
in Russia as well as anywhere, must be sought, and will enlarge our
circle of friends. This is entering by the back door, but now, for art, it is
the back door everywhere; it does not matter much; if the activity is
continued.
The chance given to many of you through the W.P.A. mural project
is admirable. Has everybody substantially realized it and done his very
best? A large responsibility rests upon them. The average of the natu–
ralistic murals is not hard to beat, but the abstract, to help any, ought
to show convincingly that beauty can be produced without a descriptive
libretto, and that forms
anc~
colors can produce more than a decoration.
If
a strong plastic expression may emerge from the U.S.S.R., it is not
to be seen yet, but could only result from a very permanent activity in
all branches of art kept on for many years. Logically, from the very
fact that it would be a strong plastic expression, it would be supported
at first by the minority of people whose evolution has led to developing
their plastic taste to a great degree; thus probably little encouraged, for
it is gratuitous to claim that this minority
IS
sure to be influential. I
believe it is too early.
4.
Is there any connection, do you think, between political trends and
their expression through art-forms? In other words can the abstract
painter today find an adequate creative impulse if he remains conti–
nually out of touch with society?
As a man, the place of the artist is among society, where he has his
beliefs, and also where he may live and work. Art, or rather works of art,
lose meaning if not kept where they may be seen; they are social by
definition. The artist cannot believe himself a solitary god creating ali
he feels that he must express in his work; the substance, more or less
transmuted, he gets from life, from daily experience as well as from
culture, from the experience of others. So everything forbids that the
artist should isolate himself from daily life where culture is permanently
tested.
Perhaps your question implies the participation of the artist in poli–
tical activity? Painting, sculpture, any form of art, to develop far, re–
quires all that a man has in his head and his flesh; and it is not worth
while suffering so much if he is not to go far. You never give it enough
attention and enough time; too much is already absorbed by the real
need for making a living. I believe the best that a fully-convinced painter
can do for society, is to paint as much as he can, whatever happens, at
his best; playing his part in the development of art, wherever it goes,
which cannot be foreseen. I wish I could convey the intensity of effort I
