Abstract art as it is conceived at present is a game bequeathed to painting and sculpture by art history. One who accepts its premises must consent to limit his imagination to a depressing casuistry regarding the formal requirements of modernism.

The aim of every authentic artist is not to conform to the history of art but to release himself from it, in order to replace it with his own history. However …

Only through apprehending, by means of present-day creations, how art is created, can the creations of other periods be genuinely appreciated.

Abandoned by philosophy, politics, and sociology, historical determinism continues to hold out in formalist art criticism.