Just like a dramatist who feels the need for an absolute standard and then with the consciousness of this standard within him forms and elevates, simplifies, and clarifies, so to there lives in the sculptor's soul something which compels him to imbue his intention with a heroic boldness and with a joy in achieving monumental effects, in overcoming triviality and in transforming the unnatural into the natural. The rules which he obeys are no longer the petty ones of common sense but the great ones of a free intelligence . . . .
People have suppressed visions in favor of merely looking at things. Creating visions is a god-like act, art in a higher and therefore better sense than just realistic imitation which involves mere technical know-how. Shouldn't this "feast of vision" be a higher sacrament than the others? Are visions unreal? Actually, they are the basis for such ideas as "self-evident," "correct," as much as they are for physical objectivity.
The most conscientious studies can be experienced as false just like the most audacious vision can be experienced as true.
Merely to demonstrate how mystical everything is futile since it only reminds the public that it must continue living in this gloomy world. But when the artist gives sensuous form to the mystical in such a way that it becomes intimately familiar he has elevated the observer above what is conventional and has placed him in the realm of the infinite. And he has revealed: see, the whole world is grand, everywhere, since the commonplace, everywhere, has mystical significance . . . .
Making something simple, making something monumental gives me a conception of eternal ideas. Part of nature's face is stripped of its wrinkles and little hairs and I try to show myself how it really looks. This process signifies an exaltation of my individuality to a status equal to nature, person to person. [1906]
[Ashton, Dore, ed. Twentieth-Century Artists on Art. New York: Pantheon Books. 1985.]
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