In very other period of art history, the idea itself –the what – had been primary. Today the idea matters less than the way it is arrived at; it is t… - Michel Seuphor

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In very other period of art history, the idea itself –the what – had been primary. Today the idea matters less than the way it is arrived at; it is the how that makes the work. This word brings us again face to face with the theme and its infinite variations. It is no longer a matter of knowing, of possessing the truth, but of approaching it... knowing that the road is long, knowing that the road does not end, knowing that the road is the end in itself.

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About Michel Seuphor

Fernand Berckelaers (1901, Antwerp – 1999, Paris), pseudonym Michel Seuphor (anagram of Orpheus), was a Belgian painter, draughtsman, and a designer of carpets. He wrote several books on the history and development of modern abstract art and used all the contacts he had with many abstract artists in Europe and the U.S.

Also Known As

Alternative Names: Fernand Berckelaers Fernant Berckelaers Ferdinand Louis Berckelaers Michel Berckelaers
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Additional quotes by Michel Seuphor

But who does not see that the work goes beyond the one who created it? It marches before him and he will never again be able to catch up with it, it soon leaves his orbit, it will soon belong to another, since he, more quickly than his work, changes and becomes deformed, since before his work dies, he dies.

The 'Cercle et Carré' group owes its existence to my encounter with the Uruguayan painter Torrès-Gracia in 1929... However difficult our relationship, his obstinacy matching my patience, this unholy team of fire and water was bound to produce something. Towards the end of the year, after consulting sundry artists, including Arp, Mondrian, and Van Doesburg, we drew up the program for a new group and launched a magazine which was be called 'Cercle et Carré'.

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To me, the circle and the square where the sky and the earth, as symbolized by the ancient Oriental religions; they formed a kind of rudimentary alphabet by means of which everything could be expressed with the most limited means. They evoked prehistoric runes and the early I-Ching, or Book of Changes.

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