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world. These mad figures must no longer sully nature. Today, as in the days 
of the early Christians, the essential must become known. The artist must let 
his work create itself directly. Today we are no longer concerned with sub 
tleties. My reliefs and sculptures fit naturally into nature. On closer examina 
tion however they reveal that they were formed by human hand, and so I have 
named certain of them: “Stone formed by human hand.” [illustration 12] 
The germ of a new plastic work 
A small fragment of one of my plastic works presenting a curve or a con 
trast that moves me, is often the germ of a new work. I intensify the curve 
or the contrast, and this determines new forms. Among the new forms two 
grow with special intensity. I let these two continue to grow until the original 
forms have become secondary and almost expressionless. Finally I suppress 
one of the secondary, expressionless forms so that the others become more ap 
parent. One work often requires months, years. I work until enough of my 
life has flowed into its body. Each of these bodies has a spiritual content, but 
only on completion of the work do I interpret this content and give it a name. 
In this way my works have received names such as: “Black cloud-arrow and 
white points,” “Plant escutcheon,” “Arabic eight,” “Plant pendulum at rest,” 
“Leaves arranged according to the law of chance.” [illustrations 13 a, b, 15 a, b] 
concrete art 
we do not want to copy nature, we do not want to reproduce, we want to 
produce, we want to produce like a plant that produces a fruit and not to 
reproduce, we want to produce directly and not through interpretation. 
as there is not the slightest trace of abstraction in this art, we call it: con 
crete art. 
the works of concrete art should not be signed by their creators, these 
paintings, these sculptures, these objects, should remain anonymous in the 
great studio of nature like clouds, mountains, seas, animals, men. yes, men 
should return to nature, artists should work in community like the artists of 
the middle ages, in 1915 o. van rees, c. van rees, freundlich, s. taeuber and 
myself, made an attempt of this kind. 
in 1915 I wrote: “these works are constructed with lines, surfaces, forms 
and colors, they strive to surpass the human and achieve the infinite and the 
eternal, they are a negation of man’s egotism. . . . the hands of our brothers,