A Gustave Courbet Portrait Of A Trout

A Gustave Courbet Portrait Of A Trout Has More Death In It Than Rubens Could Get In A Whole Crucifixion.

On The Whole, Money Does Artists Much More Good Than Harm. The Idea That One Benefits From Cold Water, Crusts And Debt Collectors Is Now Almost Extinct, Like Belief In The Reformatory Power Of Flogging.

What Has Our Culture Lost In 1980 That The Avant-garde Had In 1890? Ebullience, Idealism, Confidence, The Belief That There Was Plenty Of Territory To Explore, And Above All The Sense That Art, In The Most Disinterested And Noble Way, Could Find The Necessary Metaphors By Which A Radically Changing Culture Could Be Explained To Its Inhabitants.

There Is Virtue In Virtuosity, Especially Today, When It Protects Us From The Tedious Spectacle Of Ineptitude.

Fishing Largely Consists Of Not Catching Fish; Failure Is As Much A Part Of The Sport As Knee Injuries Are Of Football.