We are not talking about a new cognition in relation to abstract art, — Abstract art

"The word abstract comes from the light tower of the philosophers.. ..and it seems to be one of their spotlights that they have particularly focused [sic] on Art. So the artist is always lighted up by it. As soon as it — I mean the abstract — comes into painting, it ceases to be what it is as it is written. It changes into a feeling which could be explained by some other words, probably. ..[abstraction was] not so much what you could paint but rather what you could not paint. You could not paint a house or a tree or a mountain. It was then that subject matter came into existence as something you ought not have."

"Annie Besants book where she put forward the idea that theosophical mystical energies could be portrayed as colours or abstract shapes was practically the invention of abstract art. A lot of artists rushed out and read it and suddenly thought, oh God you could, you could portray love as a colour, or depression as a colour. All of a sudden abstract art happens, a flowering out of occultism."

"Observing sea, sky and stars, I sought to indicate their plastic function through a multiplicity of crossing verticals and horizontals. Impressed by the vastness of Nature, I was trying to express its expansion, rest and unity."

"The more horrible this world (as today, for instance) [first year of World War 1.], the more abstract our art, whereas a happy world brings forth an art of the here and now."

"The beauty of comfort.. .To compose with curves like that, and angles, and make works of art with them could only make people happy, they maintained, for the only association was one of comfort.. .This pure form of comfort became the comfort of pure form. The nothing part in a painting until then—the part that was not painted but that was there because of the things in the picture which were painted—had a lot of descriptive labels attached to it like beauty, lyric, form, profound, space, expression, classic, feeling, epic, romantic, pure, balance, etc. Anyhow that nothing which was always recognized as a particular something—and as something particular—they generalized, with their book-keeping minds, into circles and squares. They had the innocent idea that the "something" existed in spite of and not because of and that this something was the only thing that truly mattered."

"Working in the abstract way seems to release ones personality and sharpen the perceptions so that in the observation of humanity or landscape it is the wholeness of inner intention which moves one so profoundly. The components fall into place and one is no longer aware of the detail except as the necessary significance of wholeness and unity.. ..a rhythm of form which has its roots in earth but reaches outwards towards the unknown experiences of the future. The thought underlying this form is, for me, the delicate balance the spirit of man maintains between his knowledge and the laws of the universe."