16 April 1965

Address at the University of Notre Dame

I find it hard to tell you, on this occasion, how deeply touched I am
by your kindness.

It is a strange and affecting experience to have passed like a cloud under a
bank of clouds, for one who, before the coming of the airplane, had known flight
only in his paintings.

This is not my first visit to this country. I have lived and worked here
for a long time, and I am grateful to the United States for its hospitality.

In response to your invitation, here I am at the University of Notre Dame,
in this seat of American culture.

I said once, speaking of Art, that there is such a thing as the color of
light. If that is true, then this color has other components as well: freedom,
poetry, and everything else that gives meaning to Art and life.

When I was young, I did not strive after fame, or wealth, or honors. I merely
wanted to be a simple man and an artist, in the meaning I gave to that concept.

I wanted to be unpretentious, like my father.

That does not mean that I was passive. I did not fight with other men, but
I fought with myself.

My only ambition in life was to love: love what is worthy of love,
believe in whom one can believe.

It is only to love, I think, that men will open their hearts; it is only
through love that union and peace can come to them.

- 2 -

With age, I have gained a clearer understanding of this idea: that a man
can have but one end. Long ago I decided, I chose, to proceed to that inevitable
end with love in my life, in my art, and in everything I do.

The Art that is rooted in love continues to live.

I think that Art should speak to the spirit rather than, through various
theories, to the brain. That kind of Art grows increasingly blurred as time
goes on.

On the other hand, we feel closer to it and it plays a greater part in our
lives if it is an intense representation of the inner life of the artist.

Let us not be afraid of words like these, or of ourselves, or of the human
spirit, in this day and age. The human organism has lived like this for thou-
sands of years, and for thousands of years it has needed love.

I am happy to be among you, in this University whose work is founded on
love of men.

I lay no claim, however, to having chosen the right path in life and, like
many others, of course I have my faults.

To me, Art and life itself are like a ship on the high seas.

Who has the gift of knowing where to steer this ship and how to steer it?

Leaving aside scientific facts, there are many sources of intuitive knowledge
concealed within us.

I often think of the birds, which translate their life into song so naturally
and with such art.

The world has known artists like that: Mozart, Rembrandt, Masaccio, the
later Titian.

In everyday life, I see people and things as if through tears. I try to
offer them, as best I can, a plastic reflection.

- 3 -

The more sincere you are, the more people respond to you, and seem to expect an answer.

I do not believe in technique. It is within us.

There is no such thing as technical perfection.

Technique is acquired with age, and then it is something other than so-called perfection: by then it is made up of what is in the heart.

One listens with pity to those theories which sound like a case being presented in court and which miss the essential and the continuous in the realm of Art. Art which has the smallest drop of pride in it or which lacks feeling for others has nothing to offer than can feed the spirit.

This is the goal I have aimed at all my life, and whatever may be said of me or of my Art, I have always affirmed and reaffirmed that the qualities of Art are only in ourselves, and not in the outside world.

But it is very difficult to recognize the signs. Could that be the source of tragedy and the cause of certain crises?

Today we seem to be drowning in quantity, and we cannot save the world or ourselves except by moving towards quality.

There is no law, there is only an inner harmony between all the elements of our inner world and the external world.

Let us look back in the realm of Art.

Cezanne's theory did not make Cezanne; theory did not make painters of Seurat and Gauguin.

Impressionism did not make Monet.

Similarly, a Rembrandt or a Mozart, without a theory to back them, took whatever they could use wherever they found it. That did not prevent them from being very great.