dear monsieur brzekowski

dear monsieur brzekowski

  you ask me what I think of painting sculpture and particularly neo-
plasticism and surrealism.
  to answer your question i will have to begin with dada which tzara
and i gave birth to joyfully.  dada is the basis of all art.  dada is for
the senseless which doesn't mean non-sense.  dada is as senseless as
nature.  dada is for nature and against "art."  dada is direct like nature
and tires to assign each thing to its essential place.  dada is for infinite
sense and definite means.
  life is the goal of art.  art can misunderstand its means and merely
reflect life instead of creating it.  such means are then illusionist des-
criptive academic.  i exhibited along with the surrealists because their
rebellious attitude toward "art" and their direct attitude toward life
were as wise as dada.  more recently the surrealist painters have been
using illusionist descriptive academic means which would warm the
cockles of rops's heart.
  neoplasticism is direct but exclusively visual it lacks all relationship
to the other human faculties.
  but finally i feel that man is neither a parasol nor a para-la-si-do
nor a paramount for he is made up of two carnivorous cylinders one of 
which says white when the other says black.
  assuring you of my very pressed dishes i remain

                                                  sincerely yours

                                                  Hans Arp

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