VAN REES
Still Life
Most Cubist pictures are plainly the work of men who are profoundly moved by an idea and who are striving to express that idea in a highly original manner. It may be the manner they have chosen is so abstract, so scientifically theoretical, that it will in the end—if pursued—kill the imagination, stifle all delight, and so result in failure as art expression; but so long as the men take sincere delight in both what they are trying to say and their manner of utterance, it is impossible to deny the character of art to their works.
In proportion to their originality and daring, there may be more of living and vital art in what they are doing than in the art of the academic painter who follows in the footsteps of others without any particular effort.
In other words, it is quite conceivable there may be more of vital and living art in a movement doomed to failure than in a movement that has achieved success and become stagnant.
The vitality lies in the element of earnest striving rather than in the direction the striving takes.
VI
THE THEORY OF CUBISM
THE art that is at hand is a highly subjective art as distinguished from the highly objective art of the Impressionist and Realist, but no man can say just what forms this new art will assume.