Clyfford
Still: Quotes
"A
great free joy surges through me when I work . . . with tense
slashes and a few thrusts the beautiful white fields receive their
color and the work is finished in a few minutes. (Like Belmonte
weaving the pattern of his being by twisting the powerful bulls
around him, I seem to achieve a comparable ecstasy in bringing
forth the flaming life through these large areas of canvas. And
as the blues or reds or blacks leap and quiver in their tenuous
ambience or rise in austere thrusts to carry their power infinitely
beyond the bounds of the limiting field, I move with them and
find a resurrection from the moribund oppressions that held me
only hours ago.) Only they are complete too soon, and I must quickly
move on to another to keep the spirit alive and unburdened by
the labor my Puritan reflexes tell me must be the cost of my joy."
"I
hold it imperative to evolve an instrument of thought which will
aid in cutting through all cultural opiates, past and present,
so that a direct, immediate, and truly free vision can be achieved.
. .and I affirm my profound concern to achieve a purpose beyond
vanity, ambition, or remembrance."
"How
can we live and die and never know the difference?"
"To be
stopped by a frame's edge is intolerable."
Contemporary Art