The role of the artist,            of course,
     has always been that of image-maker;
Different times require different images;
Today when aspirations have been reduced
to a desperate attempt to escape from evil,
& times are out of joint,       our
obsessive, subterranean    & pictographic
images are the expression of the neurosis
which is our reality;   to my mind certain
                                   so-called abstraction is not abstraction at all;
                                   On the contrary, it is the realism of our time

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
     & 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 doesn't matter what one paints as long as
                                     it is well painted. Rothko said this is the essence
                                     of academicism;
6. There is no such thing as a
good painting about nothing.
7. We assert that the subject is crucial
& only that subject matter is valid
which is tragic and timeless.   That is
why we profess spiritual kinship with
primitive & archaic art