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6

There are a few other kinds of hazard, besides those I've mentioned, which best the artist's path. One of the most serious of them is success. Woe to the artist who has become typed! For, hoever [[however]] long he may exist physically, he may date his demise, creatively, from that day when he succumbs to the demand either of a dealer or of the public that he paint "life himself".

Of course it also goes without saying that of the people who want to paint earnestly enough to weather the crushing problem of "who cares?" a fairly large number never get quite close enough to themselves to achieve master of a personally adequate mode of expression. These are the people who play about on the periphery of art; the inordinate admirers of other people's work. They dodge about from one artist's style to another's, never quite understanding just what motivated the originator of the style, just why he had to paint in the way he did. I think that this tendency is especially prevalent today -- and noticeably among young artists.

There has arisen an academy of abstract painting as narrow and uncompromising as the classical academy which Cezanne flouted in the last century. And the especially ironic aspect of this new academy is that it trade in the language and symbols of once hotly rebellious artists. It has produced a sterile eclecticism which today is stifling the natural expression of many a gifted painter.

Acceptance is another problem which plagues the artist. He knows that some pretty good people enjoy recognition during their lifetimes and that other great painters have died in poverty.