From "The
Art Spirit" by Robert Henri
"Events and upheavals, which seem more profound than they really
are, are happening on the surface.
But there is another and deeper change in progress. It is of long,
steady persistent growth, very little affected and not at all
disturbed by surface conditions.
The artist of today should be alive to this deeper evolution on
which all growth depends, has depended, and will depend.
The artist of the surface does not see further than material fact.
He describes appearances and he illustrates events.
Some fractional part of him flows in the undercurrent. It is the
best part of him but he and his surface public underestimate it. He
may be conscious of it. He may be conscious of it and ashamed of it.
Or, he may repress it because it hurts his surface interests."
(83)
Robert Henri
"Everything has appearance and essence, shell and kernel, mask and
truth. What does it say against the inward determination of things
that we finger the shell without reaching the kernel, that we live
with appearance instead of perceiving the essence, that the mask of
things so blinds us that we cannot find the truth?" (84)
Franz Marc
"Satisfaction with surfaces alone has fostered a surface art - as
it has superficiality in other areas of contemporary life: surface
political candidates, surface television news, surface..." (85)
Thomas Albright
83. Robert Henri, The Art Spirit, (Toronto, Canada, Fitzhenry &
Whiteside Ltd., 1984), p.p. 94, 95
84. Herschel B. Chipp, Theories of Modern Art, (Berkeley and L.A.,
Cal., University of California Press,1968)p.180
85. Thomas Albright, On Art and Artists, (U.S.A., The Chronicle
Publishing Co., 1989),p. 131
