American scholar

Yes, of course, I am excited by

the totally integrated work of

art. But the truth is that there

is something far more important ..

than this unitary idea .. What I

really want from art is a variety

of qualities, a multiplicity of

qualities, a kaleidoscope of qual-

ities, the unpredictability of

qualities, qualities that are as

varied as the artists who create

the works of art. And I suspect

that when artists are shaping and

deepening and clarifying the qual-

ities that mean the most to them,

then quality in the sense of whole-

ness and oneness takes care of it-

self.

    I only wanted to see you
    Bathing in the purple rain.

  

                     When I first started out ..

                     I was most concerned with

                     freedom. Freedom to produce,

                     freedom to play all the in-

                     struments on my records, 

                     

                     freedom 

                     to say anything I wanted to.

    Such intentions, recalled
    in retrospect, were famous-
    ly, prolifically placed in
    play, and then, witnessing
    the fulfillments, we saw a
    profuseness of integrated 
    elements, mastered, which 
    awed us in Charles Chaplin.

    The education we enjoy in 

    this country, in what we

    want, lost a straight A

    student in him. Wherever

    now we do play fair, he's

    expected us. He drew us.

    

Yves Klein
Anthropometry
1961

Condé Nast
Magazine cover
2016©

i    Jed Perl

      Antoine's Alphabet

         Watteau and his world

      Knopf, 2008©

      op. cit.

ii, iii

      Prince

      2004