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George Gross could only paint hate. He was a magnificent artist! This takes nothing away from the artist, because he has this one dimension, he's limited to this extent. It is a limitation, I grant you, but it's not one that doesn't bear any real criticism, I don't think.

...I'm sure the country is not singling me out as an individual. I know you're probably restating the question about suppression of myself or my work, using it in the editorial sense, aren't you? Because I don't feel that the country has really singled me out to do a particular job on. But I do understand what you mean. And this is where we get back to the other question about what is generally Negro art or suppressed. The Negro is a Negro first. Incidentally, he's an artist. He has talents. Okay. Sometimes there's room for him, sometimes there's not. What astonished me when I first came to California, to Los Angeles, was how few Negro artists had been recognized as Negro artists or as artists. Who would teach it in the art schools? Or where were they in the commercial field, where they were working in the commercial fields of important art? How few? I met Marion Sampler, and I was so surprised that the had this magnificent job. It's a very important architectual [[architectural]] firm. And then, you know, I was just shocked that a city this size...it was flattering for me to be, say the first Negro teacher in an art school.

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