ART CHRONICLE
37
mean. It is only that intensity that makes such an attitude acceptable
and not cowardly.
It is for the artist a question of realizing his own unity, between his
ideas, feelings, opinions. He may personally get into action, as one of
the crowd. What else could the abstract artist do? Logically, if he is
working sincerely and deeply, his opinions on society ought to be re–
flected in his work, but how this can be detected in the play of forms
and colors, outside of any literary allusion, remains to be seen.
The case is easier for an artist working with naturalistic appearances.
As
I cannot consider naturalism, or any "ism" otherwise than as another
way to provide forms and colors and to provoke imagination and feel–
ings,---material for the plastic manipulations of the artist,-the impor–
tance of the subject, as such, is for me secondary when looking at that
type of work. It ought to be easy for the representational artist to con–
ciliate his subjects with opinions on society and politics. It would help
him
to check on them and improve the unity between his tastes and
beliefs. And perhaps help his cause a little. With the exception of satirical
drawings, posters, and such specialized means adapted to the average
comprehension and taste of the public, I doubt that any plastic work
can be used efficiently in a political fight.
If
an image is strongly devel–
oped froni a plastic point of view, it absorbs the meaning of the subject.
The work is a solution of that subject, after which there is nothing more
to do about it; it does not call for action, but contemplation. The more
beautiful the painting, the less convincing does its subject become ren–
dered for the masses; it is dominated by the plastic activity. The subject
can take sides, not the quality. And the subjects have not helped the best
paintings in the museums to become the most popular. The help given,
if
any, is vague.
Participating in propaganda should help the artist himself more
than his cause, by providing him with fresh opportunities to work, and
the chance to test his means on a wider public; to show that beyond the
motto required, forms and colors are working intensely. Every artist must
desire to incorporate all of himself, including opinions, in his work, and
must do it as much as he can. But abstraction is no more than other
forms of art a voluntary choice; through a sincere development a man
is
led to it; it is the best he believes he can do. For myself, I am not
satisfied with it. I keep on developing it as far as I can. I wish I could
also name my opinions within it. No form of art is ever satisfying. It is
that permanent search for incorporating more of life, more of intelli–
gence, more of feeling and belief, that makes Art grow and move
permanently.
5.
The progress of your own art has been from flat spatial structure to
a moving spatial organi<.ation; and now your recent pictures, painted
in America, tend toward forms sometimes completely modelled, that
stand free in space and occasionally even suggest shapes in nature. Is
this a step toward a rediscovery of the visual world? or was this sug–
gestion accidental and a move towards new and complete abstractions?
