"The word 'abstract' comes from the light tower of the philosophers.. ..and it seems to be one of their spotlights that they have particularly focused [sic] on 'Art.' So the artist is always lighted up by it. As soon as it — I mean the 'abstract' — comes into painting, it ceases to be what it is as it is written. It changes into a feeling which could be explained by some other words, probably. ..[abstraction was] not so much what you could paint but rather what you could not paint. You could not paint a house or a tree or a mountain. It was then that subject matter came into existence as something you ought not have."