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In books and pictures and music I saw and felt the assault a cultural power can impose upon its individual units.  If I rejected the instruments of my cultural background it was not because of isolation or unfamiliarity or even the escape they offered, but because I chose to keep that which I knew was more essential of insight and single courage.

Most of my years have been spent in cities where I engaged in the activities most men of mind must cope with as they work and think and find survival.  If I choose to use paint and canvas it is that I have made it an instrument of realization, and extension of thought and revelation that is for me unique.  And I have tried many other means, even painting, and found them inadequate.

In returning again to a specific point in Mr. Hess's review Mr. Goya is correct in noting that the use of the word "sensation" to describe even the mental event implied carries unfortunate implications.  The term is quite misleading.

The above is not to be interpreted as an effort to elucidate the processes of my thought and acts.  It is merely to check a spreading confusion that was brought sharply to my attention, in this particular instance.  As for the question marks that found their way around someones remarks repeated after they were used in The Magazine of Art I will never know whence they came nor who used them.  Certainly they were not, could not, have been mine.  But such is the power of the quotation in irresponsible hands that I felt it necessary at this time to say "no".

Most sincerely yours,
[[signature]]
Clyfford Still

New York City