Letter

CO-3096 Macy, George; Limited Editions Club. [Carta] 1941 Nov. 28, New York, NY [para] Candido Portinari, Washington, D.C. 2 p. [inglês][datilografado] Dear Senor Portinari I knew that the letter I sent to you on November 13 would bring you a real disappointment; but I hoped that you would accept my letter in a different spirit; and I now beg you to reconsider the decision to which you have come in your present letter. Everybody knows that the true artist is the artist who paints for his own satisfaction, and not for the satisfaction of a public; if he tried to paint for a public, he would find himself unable to think of what to paint. But surely this, which is one of the basic principles of art, must be a principle applying only to a painting. When you make a painting, you are creating a single object of art, for your own satisfaction. However, when you undertake to make illustrations for a book, and these illustrations are to be reproduced fifteen hundred times, it is not possible to conclude that all of the fifteen hundred objects of art are made to please you and not to please anybody else. Because fifteen hundred objects of art are being created from your drawings, it is an essential factor about the drawings that you must please a large number of people. Actually, the making of a book is a cooperative enterprise. The paper maker is supposed, in theory, to make a paper which will harmonize with your illustrations; and you are, in theory, supposed to make illustrations which will print well on his paper. The printer is supposed to use a type which will harmonize properly with your illustrations; and you are supposed to make illustrations which go well with the pages of type. If the paper maker were given his permission to please only himself, he might decide to make a black paper, upon which your illustrations could not be seen; and you would have every reason to be angry with him. If the printer were to decide to print your illustrations in light ink, because he thought that they would otherwise interfere with the type, your illustrations could not be seen and you would have every reason to be angry with the printer. In the creation of a single book, the illustrator and the paper maker and the printer and the binder and publisher are all supposed to work cooperatively together; no one of these people can be permitted to please himself, they must all try to please each other; and them, since their work is reproduced, in the case of The Limited Editions Club, fifteen hundred times, it is an essential feature of their work that it must please a large number of people. I beg you to think of this, in relation to your drawings. When you visited my office, I described to you that part of your work which induced me to think of you as the ideal illustrator for Hans Staden. I think it is a necessary part of your making of the pictures that they should please me, and the printer, and a large number of our members. I thought this was clearly understood. Actually, although in the contract the illustrations are left to your discretion, so far as technique is concerned, it is stated in the contract that the illustrator has agreed that the illustrations will be made to the satisfaction of the publisher. I am certain of the fact that you can, if you will be amiable, create a series of drawings in pencil which will be ideal four our book. I beg you to be amiable, and to do that. Cordially yours George Macy Director