Dreams and reality are united in our imagination. The artist possesses the means to create only after he has effective command of his faculty of empa… - Hans Hofmann

Since light is best expressed through differences in color quality, color should not be handled as a tonal gradation, to produce the effect of light.

Since one cannot create 'depth' by carving a hole in the picture, and since one should not attempt to create the illusion of depth by tonal gradation, depth as a plastic reality must be two dimensions in a formal sense as well in the sense of color. 'Depth' is not created on a flat surface as an illusion, but as a plastic reality. The nature of the picture plane makes it possible to achieve depth without destroying the two-dimensional essence of the picture plane. .A plane is a fragment in the architecture of space. When a number of planes are opposed one to another, a spatial effect results. A plane functions in the same manner as the walls of a building.. .Planes organized within a picture create the pictorial space of its composition.. .The old masters were plane-consciousness. This makes their pictures restful as well as vital...

The impressionistic method leads into a complete splitting and dissolution of all areas involved in the composition, and color is used to create an overall effect of light. The color is, through such a shading down from the highest light in the deepest shadows, sacrified an degraded to a (black-and-white) function. This leads to the destructions of the color as color.