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ideas, on the part of persons of intelligence, sensibility, and passion. Fidelity to what occurs between oneself and the canvas, no matter how unexpected, becomes central. The specific appearance of these canvases depends not only on what the painters do, but on what they refuse to do. The major decisions in the process of painting are on the grounds of truth, not taste. [[strikethrough]] Conventional painting is a lie - not an imposture, but the product of a man who is a living lie, who cannot help himself, since he does not know [[?]] ^[[the truth.]] [[/strikethrough]]

That painting and sculpture are not skills, that can be taught in reference to pre-established criteria, whether academic or [[underlined]] moderne [[/underlined]], but a process, whose content is [[underlined]] found [[/underlined]], subtle and deeply felt; that no true artist ends with the style that he expected to have when he began, anymore than anyone's life unrolls in the particular manner that one expected when young; that it is only by giving oneself up completely to the painting medium that one finds oneself and one's own style; that it is only someone who himself is engaged in this process that is likely to be able to "read" the truest works of a period when they first appear - such is the experience of the School of New York. 

One must not be discouraged if these works are not easily "read" at first sight, and there is no use in being outraged. For a hundred years modern painters, stubbornly and in the face of incessant hostility, have moved, step by step, leaving superb monuments by the wayside, towards an art of arrangement whose expressiveness depends less and less upon its elements imitating the objects of the external world. Such a project can be criticized philosophically, that is to say, abstractly; it can be accounted for historically and socially, as a new secular [[underlined]] mystique [[/underlined]]; but no one can doubt its energy and vitality, and consequently [[strikethrough]] how inspiring the values that have led its creation have proved themselves. [[?]] [[/strikethrough]] ^[[^ its inspiration and reality.]] We have to trust painters, trust that, [[strikethrough]] in any given period [[/strikethrough]]

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This page will be marked complete, because the two [[?]]'s left are completely blacked out by ink and can't be discerned.