The profanity of paint

Chapter 20: 19. Mission

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About This Book

A collection of short, reflective essays by a painter that privilege romantic vision and intuition over technical realism, treating colour as a mutable, almost spiritual force beyond pigments. Through meditations on trees and the limits of representation, the author argues that literal training and excessive knowledge can stifle true artistic feeling, and he champions silence, poetic language, and personal temperament as essential to creation. Individual chapters address rhythm, relation, critics, the middle class, extravagance, tragedy, genius, and the idea of a masterpiece, concluding with moral reflections on the artist’s mission and the tension between perception and portrayal.

19. Mission

WHAT is the painter’s mission? My dear sir, he has no mission. He may talk about anything and everything, but this is his pastime. His art should not be connected with any movement. Painting is a personal matter and, therefore, cannot be regulated by communities. When the painter talks he throws light upon himself, which is necessary sometimes; it may help others to understand him. The painter must be judged, in the end, from his own point of view: it is the only moral judgment for an honest man!