"The true artist always refuses to conform to any standards others than his own. That’s why the attacks in Russia against Shostakovitch and Prokofiev are identical to the attacks that have been made here against American pioneers of abstract painting like Davis, Holty, or Morris. In Russia it was Malevich and Gabo, in this country at the moment it is people like Rothko, Baziotes, Pollock, my self and many others who are being attacked. The names may vary, but the methods, the motives; the objects of attack are essentially the same. Only meritocracy is forever immune, because it is forever ready to conform. (his comment on the attacks on artistic freedom in 1948."
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Quote of Adolph Gottlieb (1948) in his lecture at Forum: the Artist Speaks, museum of Modern Art, New York, May 5, 1948
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Naum_Gabo
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Naum Gabo
Naum Gabo (August 5, 1890 – August 23, 1977) was a prominent Russian sculptor in the Constructivism movement and a pioneer of kinetic art.
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