The engagement of subject, I’m absolutely convinced, that the engagement with a subject, with forms, with tangibility and the pressures together; with the plastic pressures; the demands of painting; where’s what and what’s over what; the rhythmic distribution; well that engagement which is the most hair-raising and serious and impossible and anxiety ridden engagement you can think of, produces the most unpredictable structures.
That’s why so-called abstract; flat painting; is ridiculous, because the limitations; the rules of the game are drawn too quickly; and they begin with where you should finish up. You can end up with one line, but you can’t begin that way.

Philip Guston (via ricdragon)