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RAPHAEL SOYER - 6 - INTERVIEW: 9/3/69

SR: So it should be, as you see the ideal, it would be to -- paint what you see as it is, rather than as you see it.
RS: Well, again, you know, it's -- I think I started something -- No. I mean there is no ideal. I mean, one can be too this way too. I say, my preference, I would like to be -- I mean, there is, you know, each one would like to be something that he is not, you know. I wanted to be more of a painter the type, say Vermeer is, or Velazquez is, or Degas. A certain coldness, a certain abstraction, a certain aloofness, which I admire. I like elements in a work of art, you see. I think that means, it connotes, it means a strength, it means a kind of ability to see things from all angles.
SR: So, in a way, what you're saying is that you're own feelings and your own self gets projected into what you paint even though you don't particularly set out to do that.
RS: Yes, of course, I -- that's me. I mean, my work is -- I have frustrations. I mean, I set out to do something, and it comes out something else. I want to be like Vermeer, and it comes out like myself.
SR: I see.
RS: I think that Cezanne had this quality, too. I mean, this aloofness, this grandness -- I mean, without showing too much sentiment, too much emotion -----. And I like that kind of work. And this is not the kind -- my work is not of that type.
SR: And as far as the role of your own feelings and thoughts being portrayed in your work, maybe in the way a Surrealist portrays his dreams, you don't find that creeping into your work in any way.