I have painted all my adult life – thousands of paintings, most of which had only a learning value; these I destroyed as I would like to destroy others now out of my reach. Some paintings I regret not having done well enough; a remaining few I have liked over a number of years. Individuality of expression is not so interesting to me as the anonymity, the impersonality of great art. Self-expression, self-assertion I find dull; we need to learn our craft better than that, and I would consider structure part of the craft of painting.
Subject? I am in favor of subject. I think there are certain great subject-themes which most artists avoid now: there is a trap of banality on one side and a pit of obscurity on the other, but if one cannot be imaginative with subject, how can one be imaginative in other ways?
A sense of fraternity is a comforting thing, so I do not regret the disappearance of national, regional or local characteristics in … nor do I see modern society as the antagonist of art. The battles fought on and within the rectangle of the canvas are worth our energies, not the lamentations over the strength of the enemies without.
From Art in America, February 1955: “New Talent in the USA”
Article by Jerry Bywaters, then Director of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts.