Contemporary Painting
also in the future be considered, probably with various reservations, the most typical representatives of the art of our times.
Is it possible to believe at the present moment in the existence of a "Russian School"?—Hardly. The school, in the sense of a uniform system or of a programme, does not exist any more. Individualism which furthered our emancipation from the fetters of the "Wanderers'" tendency and from the academic pattern—has at this time reached the moment of its extreme development, and has evolved its extreme conclusions. We have as many movements and schools as individual painters. And this is so not only in Russia, but throughout Western art. Each truly modern artist strives only toward one thing: to express as fully as possible himself alone. All influence, all borrowing is branded as plagiarism. The artist suffers if he notices that his manner recalls that of another.
Yet it is impossible that such a state of affairs should continue forever. Individualism as a protest is beautiful, but as a self-sufficient moral and æsthetic system it is bad, nay, horrible. Particularly, in the field of art, individualism leads to complete degeneration of forms, to ineffectiveness in work, and to poverty and ineptness of conception. However great our worship
177
