..a pictorial composition is not merely an assemblage of objects truthfully represented, it is the expression of an idea, and all the parts must be related as to form a harmonious whole. It cannot be a work of art unless it has this quality of wholeness… We feel the need of a new faculty which is but imperfectly developed; in short, the ability to compose, the creative faculty, not the imitative.

(from Arthur Dow address to Boston Art Students’ Association 1894, quoted by Arthur Warren Johnson, Arthur Wesley Dow, Ipswich Historical Society 1934, p. 61) [cited in: "Pictorial Photography in Britain 1900 – 1920", exhibition catalogue, Arts Council of Great Britain in association with The Royal Photographic Society, London 1978, p. 24]

0

Comments

0

Share