MM N 74. Notes related to art

• ­

MM N 74, fol. 1r

    I painted picture after picture
based on the impressions that were imprinted
on my eye during moments of intense emotion
[I] painted the lines and colours that
remained attached to my
inner eye – on
my retina –

    I painted only what I remembered
without adding anything – without the
details that I could no longer see
– Hence the simplicity of
the pictures – the apparent
emptiness –

    I painted impressions from
childhood – The faded colours from
that time –

    By painting those colours and lines
and shapes I had seen in an emotional
state – I wished as with a phonograph
to make the emotional
state vibrate once again –

    This is how the pictures in the Frieze of Life came into being