Blue Self-Portrait

“I personally believe in l’art pour l’art. In the creation of a work of art, nothing should interfere with the real idea. A work of art must elaborate on its own idea and follow the conditions which this idea establishes. This does not mean that an artist must have principles which he obeys and which he carries out under all circumstances. Such principles would probably be, in general, external and their application would certainly deprive a work of art from its natural conditions. There is perhaps only one principle which every artist should obey, that is: never to bow to the taste of the mediocre, to the taste of minor people who prefer that what an artist never would do.” (Arnold Schönberg, Round-Table on Modern Art, 1949)