Arshile Gorky on Johannes Vermeer

“Yes, Johannes Vermeer paints in thin layers – there is no waste effort – and those small dots – no, they are not like Seurat’s, though they contain all the light the pointillist may have wished for, concentrated, hovering before the object, but not obliterating it.. ..Vermeer is not a sun painter, but rather a moon-painter – like Uccello – that’s good, it is the pure, final stage of art, the moment when it becomes more real than reality.”

“Delacroix spoke of the Greek coin being built from the center out. Vermeer has painted in this way, according to the principles of mass.. ..How beautifully they are drawn – Vermeer does not just make a leaf and place it in the design, he relates space and leaf. [on the painting of Vermeer ‘Allegory on the New Testament]. That drapery – it is abstract – observe how this shape [a space between a shepherd and the tree] curves around the center space while the tree counter-curves opposite it, cutting an egg shape.. ..the spaces on the carpet that carry no figuration are, in fact, shapes of vital importance in building the whole…”