The Footprint of the State

I pulled out Robert Henri’s book The Art Spirit this morning and it opened to a Letter of Criticism he wrote to a student. It’s amazing how idealistic and optimistic they were back in the day and enthralled with Madame Blavatsky and the theosophists.

The object of painting a picture is not to make a picture–however unreasonable this may sound. The picture, if a picture results, is a by-product and may be useful, valuable, interesting as a sign of what has past. The object, which is back of every true work of art, is the attainment of a state of being, a state of high functioning, a more than ordinary moment of existence. In such moments activity is inevitable, and whether this activity is with brush, pen, chisel, or tongue, its result is but a by-product of the state, a trace, the footprint of the state.