“Imagination is perhaps the most decisive characteristic of mankind. My dream is the imagination of space – to change the optical impression of the world of objects by a transcendental arithmetic progression of the inner being. That is the precept. In principal any alteration of the object is allowed which has a sufficiently strong creative power behind it. Whether such alteration causes excitement or boredom in the spectator is for you to decide.”

—  Max Beckmann

Source: 1930s, On my Painting (1938), p. 16

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Max Beckmann 52
German painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor and writer 1884–1950

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