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Hopi Indian

Excerpt from Szukalski's book "Inner Portraits", regarding his sculpture "Hopi Indian":

"Some of the captions with these sculptures are remote, because I wish to smuggle into the reader's mind that ART is far simpler than the pseudo-profound creations of contemporary intellectuals imply."

"In many cases among the finest examples of Art, the creators were simple-minded people who expounded no theories about their profession, but merely followed their instinctive judgements like regular workers. I shall approach you as possible youths who long to create with impatient hands, but may have become paralysed by self-doubt because this epoch has built so many sterile notions. From my long life as a sculptor, I can tell you the REAL TRUTH, since my superfluous skills qualify me to call my opinions VALUABLE."

"Art is SIMPLE. You need no qualifications (like slim fingers, soulful looks, or a murmuring stomach that the person next to you could suspect as being the voice of God). Simply proceed without training, for Art Schools will give you sterile advice that will prove that you have no Talents at all. Start your first work and continue to work without asking anyone's opinions, until you are trapped in it and unable to stop. That being "caught" by what you do is the signal that you have serious potentials."

"The fact that you are drawn into that first work proves that you have CHARACTER. Having character is a TALENT, a superior quality. And it is your patience that may shape a lump of clay into an "interesting" object. Art must be INTERESTING, but only to YOU, not your professor, father or priest. You are the FINAL JUDGE, because it is YOU who is doing the daring."

"Now indeed, every lump of clay is given a chance to become a masterpiece, born under the palm of your hand and cherishing gaze of your eyes. It is not the concept (for in the beginning all concepts are worthless) that makes it eloquent, but the surfacing of your biologic potentials. It is your belief in yourself that will make everything you do an eventual masterpiece."

"This piece was a means for me to begin to apply sharp edges and stylised forms. I have never been among the Hopi Indians, and at the time I made this work, did not know how they looked. At the age of 22 I was interested in anthropology and mistakenly gave the sculpture negroid lips. But I finished that mistake... carefully. In fact, it is the mistakes that give "style" to Art. A work without flaws is without style. A cast made from a human body is anti-Art. What Norman Rockwell did with his art was mere taxidermy, composed anecdotally. If you are a beginner, make your mistakes BEAUTIFULLY and they will be Art. Beyond all! Do not fear to undertake the next work and do not spot until it is done COMPLETELY, then... sit back and admire... YOURSELF."