Composition as Explanation (1926)
The Creators: A History of Heroes of the Imagination (1992) (Vintage edition, 1993, ), Preface, p. XV.
Context: These creators, makers of the new, can never become obsolete, for in the arts there is no correct answer. The story of discoverers could be told in simple chronological order, since the latest science replaces what went before. But the arts are another story — a story of infinite addition. We must find order in the random flexings of the imagination.
Quote by Jean Renoir, in: Renoir my father, p. 96; as quoted in The private lives of the Impressionists, Sue Roe, Harpen Collins Publishers, New York 2006, p. 24
a remark of Bazille, in the winter of 1862 – 63 during a walk with Renoir
the two painters passed a crying baby while its nurse was flirting with a soldier
1861 - 1865
"Fresh Water, Salt Water, and other Macroeconomic Elixirs", 1989
Book of Taliesin (c. 1275?), The Battle of the Trees
Context: There was a calling on the Creator,
Upon Christ for causes,
Until when the Eternal
Should deliver those whom he had made.
The Lord answered them,
Through language and elements:
Take the forms of the principal trees,
Arranging yourselves in battle array,
And restraining the public.
Singer, Edgar A. "Esthetic and the Rational Ideal. II." The Journal of Philosophy 23.10 (1926): 258-268; Partly cited in: William Gerber. Anatomy of what We Value Most, Rodopi, 1997, p. 55
“The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim.”
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Games for Actors and non-Actors (1992)
Context: Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see a dance piece where the dancers danced in the first act and in the second showed the audience how to dance? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see a musical where in the first act the actors sang and in the second we all sang together?... This is... how artists should be—we should be creators and also teach the public how to be creators, how to make art, so that we may all use that art together.
