He merely pointed the way to art.Ĭonsequently, his original outline was a framework on which the generations hung new discovery after new discovery made in nature. And his pictures must not be considered art. Both technique and consciousness were only at the beginning of their development. The distortion of reality in his depictions is the result of weak technique. Therefore his primitive depictions cannot be considered creative work. His consciousness developed in only one direction, toward nature’s creation and not toward new forms of art. The more his consciousness embraced nature, the more involved his work became, and the more his experience and skill increased. And as his consciousness developed, so the outline of his depiction of nature grew more involved. His consciousness could see only the outline of a man, a beast, etc. The savage saw neither his outward image nor his inward state. Collective, because the real man with his subtle range of feelings, psychology, and anatomy had not been discovered. The first inscription of the savage’s primitive depiction gave birth to collective art, or the art of repetition. And all the artist’s efforts were directed toward the transmission of her creative forms. Hence arose the aim of approaching the face of nature as closely as possible. This first attempt laid the basis for the conscious imitation of nature’s forms. The savage was the first to establish the principle of naturalism: in drawing a dot and five little sticks, he attempted to transmit his own image. Objects have vanished like smoke to attain the new artistic culture, art advances toward creation as an end in itself and toward domination over the forms of nature. Only dull and impotent artists veil their work with sincerity. To reproduce beloved objects and little corners of nature is just like a thief being enraptured by his shackled legs.
And only cowardly consciousness and insolvency of creative power in an artist yield to this deception and establish their art on the forms of nature, afraid of losing the foundation on which the savage and the academy have based their art. This accursed ring, by continually revealing novelty after novelty, leads the artist away from the aim of destruction. I have destroyed the ring of the horizon and escaped the circle of objects, the horizon-ring that has imprisoned the artist and the forms of nature. I have transformed myself in the zero of form and have fished myself out of the rubbishy slough of academic art. Only when the conscious habit of seeing the little corners of nature, once the Madonnas and Venuses in pictures disappear, will we witness a purely painterly work of art.