Forrest Williams - Passage

I remember reading that the young Balthus was deeply influenced by Derain’s remark, “The only purpose of painting today is the recovery of lost secrets.”  That observation was made almost a hundred years ago now, but it still resonates with me.

A painting is an intensely personal vision. It is intuitive and its meaning can be elusive—sometimes even to the painter. Each painting is a piece of something that you can spend a lifetime trying to figure out. It’s a revelation of the unse...