EXTENSIVE FACTS TAKE TIME TO LOAD
J. Z. Jacobson | Art of Today Chicago 1933 | Published by L M Stern, Chicago, 1932
SAM OSTROWSKY was born in Russia (Province of Kief) and studied at an art school in Kief and at Academy Julien in Paris. He has painted in France and Russia and along the Atlantic Coast in the United States, has exhibited in Paris, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and other cities, and has had one-man shows in Paris and Chicago. His work has been written about in French and American newspapers and magazines, and he is represented in many private collections.
I am absolutely opposed to the whole theory of national and racial art. There are only good painters and picture makers, good sculptors and clay workers or stone choppers. If an artist is a real artist, he works for the whole world and for all time. A canvas should possess harmony of line and color with a thorough realization of tone nuance. Anything that has no tone nuance is merely decorative, and the decorative is always second-rate. The color harmony should convey the mystic emotion which the artist experiences when he is creating. Bonnard, Utrillo, close disciples of Renoir and Cezanne, are my favorites among contemporaries. I feel that I belong with them and am proud of it. The artist is motivated first of all by his own emotions. Secondly comes the influence of masters who preceded him. I feel free to say, for instance, that Rembrandt was influenced by Tintoretto. An artist is influenced by masters with whom he has a kinship of spirit. When I look at Raphael I am not influenced. When I look at Da Vinci I am not influenced. But when I look at Velasquez, Chardin and Cezanne I feel I am in my own element. There is no such thing as modern art or old art. There is only great art or just workmanship. Sam Ostrowsky.