In The Words Of . . . .
From: Ferrier, Jean-Louis, Director and Yann le Pichon, Walter D. Glanze [English Translation]. Art of Our Century, The Chronicle of Western Art, 1900 to the Present. New York: Prentice-Hall Editions. 1988.
The keen sensation, sharp as a knife, followed by the flush of emotions, the burning desire to express the unexpressed. Neither "realism" nor "fantasy" exists any longer, there is only the unlimited.
It is an obsession. If you were to ask me what sort of light I would like to express in my paintings, my answer would be: a torrential light.
The student takes a giant step forward when he realizes that what goes on between objects is as important as the objects themselves.
A visual meditation, without the intervention of thought, can enliven the moment. Things reveal themselves suddenly; what appeared inert becomes rich with the mystery of a smile, the heat of a growing flame, or the explosion of a celebration., What was a given becomes the unknown. Absolutely.
Zen is the contrary of an escape from time. An awakening and the profound presence of being is the very essence of the inward light.
There are neither shapes nor objects. There are only events--sudden sightings--appearance.
Shake the canvas or any surface--cover it here and there with ink or light colors. Shake it from top to bottom, from left to right, using the body's flexibility to its utmost
Spit ink out or breath it in.
Why renounce nature and mythology? In the name of what taboo am I forbidden to find and impose the symbols of blossoming and germination? In the name of what commandments, in the name of what ethics, am I to abstain from painting the certain sighs of life: that which is impregnated, and that which is devoured?
Let us hear no more about fantasy. What is fantasy is being here--existing--a tragi-comic surprise, a reality so overwhelming that, when you really think about it, many paintings classified as fantastic are but mediocre "realities."
Painting has no true destination as it had in the past; it no longer finds its "victory and repose" in answering to the spiritual needs of peoples. It lives on itself. The brief pleasure that painting can still give us should leave no illusions: It no longer has any effective necessity.
[An Excerpt From: Ferrier, Jean-Louis, Director and Yann le Pichon, Walter D. Glanze [English Translation]. Art of Our Century, The Chronicle of Western Art, 1900 to the Present. New York: Prentice-Hall Editions. 1988. p. 821]
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