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“Anyone looking to follow in the footsteps of Pollock, Rothko, or Mondrian is out of luck. Pollock was not interested in painting nature. He was not interested in the world or in reality itself. Rather, he painted himself, as all Modern artists must do. Imitation is a failure of self-expression. Imitation is treason, for every act of imitation looks to the past. Imitation also implies hierarchy, for a man must choose who to imitate. If he claims to imitate no one, though, he may claim success in all that he undertakes, for he has no standard outside himself by which his work can be judged.” — Joshua Gibbs
Anyone looking to follow in the footsteps of Pollock, Rothko, or Mondrian is out of luck. Pollock was not interested in painting nature. He was not interested in the world or in reality itself. Rather, he painted himself, as all Modern artists must do. Imitation is a failure of self-expression. Imitation is treason, for every act of imitation looks to the past. Imitation also implies hierarchy, for a man must choose who to imitate. If he claims to imitate no one, though, he may claim success in all that he undertakes, for he has no standard outside himself by which his work can be judged.