This new presence can make us brave, and
bravery —
even more than theoretical acumen — is the antidote to oppression because acts of
bravery lead to new perceptions; in contrast, acts of shrewdness,
even when they are subject to correction, lead only to new tactics and so can not adjust their essential aims or lead to new empirical discoveries about the world.
It is a
bravery that echoes the stance of many of the painters that he admires, be it the visionary and
more marginal figures like Forrest Bess (1911 — 77), Alfred Jensen (1903 — 81) or Paul Feeley (1910 — 66), or the energetic re-invention found in the work of Picasso (1888 — 1973) or
even Sigmar Polke (1941 — 2010).