A painter

 

Un peintre ne retrouve le vrai sens du tableau, tant oublié aujourd’hui, qu’en ne refusant pas cette mêlée confuse, si impure et contradictoire qu’elle lui paraisse, en acceptant de ne pas connaître à l’avance le visage qui en surgira. En sachant qu’il n’est pas de raccourcis ni d’évasion possibles. Il y apprend lentement, à travers les mille facettes d’une structure qui le fuit, le sens profond, secret, de la construction d’un tableau, et que le squelette se porte à l’intérieur.

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A painter can only rediscover the true meaning of painting—so often forgotten today—by not rejecting that confused mêlée, however impure and contradictory it may seem to him, and by accepting that he cannot know in advance the face that will emerge from it. By understanding that there are no shortcuts or possible escapes. Through the thousand facets of a structure that constantly eludes him, he slowly learns the deep, secret meaning of the construction of a painting—and that the skeleton is carried within.

© Jean Bazaine