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- STATEMENT -

A group of artists have joined together to discuss their problems. The work of the members of this group is highly diverse in style and conception. Their kinship is a respect and love for the human qualities in painting. They are numerous enough to represent the professional body. The following statement represents their concerted opinion.

All art is an expression of human experience. All the possibilities of art must be explored to broaden this expression. We nevertheless believe that texture and accident, like color, design, and all the other elements of painting, are only the means to a larger end, which is the depiction of man and his world.

Today, mere texturaly novelty is being presented by a dominent clique of museum officials, dealers, and publicity men as the unique manefestation of the artistic intuition. This arbitrary exploitation of a single phase of painting encourages a contempt for the taste and intelligence of the public. We are asked to believe that art is for t the future, that only an inner circle is capable of judging contemporary painting, that everybody else must take it on faith. Thesetheories are fixed in a ritual jargon equally incomprehensible to [[strikethrough]] the [[/strikethrough]] artist and layman. This jargon is particularly confusing to young artists, many of whom are led to accept the excitation of texture and color as the true end of art, even to equate disorder with creation. The dogmatic repetition of these views has produced in the whole world of art and atmosphere of irresponsibility, snobbery and ignorance.

We say in the words of Delacroix : "The men of our profession deny to the fabricators of theories the right to thus dabble in our domain and at our expense." We believe that art cannot become the property of an esoteric cult. We reaffirm the right of the artist to the control of his profession. We will work to restore to art its freedom and dignity as a living language.