From Creative Art, September 1929
(In December 1928, Charles Demuth sent a draft of his artistic credo to Alfred Stieglitz, concerned that it was “too light” for Lee Simonson's magazine Creative Art. Demuth feared it was unlikely to get much longer than this “general idea if it can be called an idea. Tell Lee it will be under a thousand words,- he wanted 1500. I couldn't write a 1500 word thing on this subject [in] under fifty years.” Accompanied by reproductions of a watercolor of some fruit, a Bermuda landscape, and two poster portraits the article, titled “Across A Greco Is Written,” appeared in the September 1929 issue, followed by art critic Henry McBride's assessment, “Water-Colours of Charles Demuth.” It is reprinted here through the kindness of Maximilian H. Miltzlaff.)

“Across A Greco Is Written” By Charles Demuth
I have been urged by Mr. Lee Simonson,-- who if he would, could do it much better - I too have other pleasures - to write about my own paintings. At the start: “Why?” Haven't I, in a way, painted them? Poems have been written by painters about their paintings, I know, and - I have heard painters, in my own time, speak excitedly about their own work. Colour and line can say quite a bit, unaided by words, when used by one for whom they are a means of expression. Words are not to me a means. I can only paint. Many days I don't feel that this is true - this: “I can write.” To me words explain too much and say too little. If I could write and believed in having a cause, even a good cause - well, certainly I would write about the paintings which are being done, at the moment, in my country. Good things many of them, and, some to me, great works. But I must leave 'this cause' to time; time the final critic and only creator of legend. I feel certain time and I shall agree. The idea of having painters write about their own paintings is to me not one which is likely to produce great results - add to the medium of words. And unless this addition is accomplished, why write? There comes to my mind only one thing written by a painter about his drawings which really added to literature - it is called “Venus and Tannhauser”[by Aubrey Beardsley]. However! Across the final surface - the touchable bloom, if it were a peace - of any fine painting is written for those who dare to read that which the painter knew, that which he hoped to find out, or, that which he - whatever! Across a Greco, across a Blake, across a Rubens, across a Watteau, across a Beardsley is written in larger letters than any printed page will ever dare to hold, or, Broadway facade or roof support what its creator had to say about it. To translate these painted sentences, whatever they may be, into words - well, try it. With the best of luck the “sea change” will be great. Or, granting a translation of this kind were successful what would you have but what was there already, and as readable - and perhaps, on repetition, a trifle boring. Paintings are; and, I call complete drawings, paintings, too, to be looked at. If the “inner eye” does not glitter before certain contemporary “Calla Lilies,” certain American water-colours, certain of Florine [Stettheimer]'s, or Peggy [Bacon]'s portraits, added physical words will not cause it to glitter - even though spoken or written by Pater or Joyce. Your choice - ladies! For the painter, paintings are, wet or dry, just paintings. They are not arguments. They are signs on the way to that supposed Nirvana; Culture. They are not - however, this must be printed in our new world, so perhaps that: “They are not,” cannot be said. Paintings must be looked at and looked at and looked at - they, I think, the good ones, like it. They must be understood, and that's not the word, either, through the eyes. No writing, no talking, no singing, no dancing will explain them. They are the final, the `nth whoopee of sight. A water-melon, a kiss may be fair, but after all have other used. “Look at that!” is all that can be said before a great painting, at least, by those who really see it. “And cannot words, written or spoken, help those who have partial or little sight for painting?” My answer to this question is: No. Only prayer, and looking, and looking at painting and - prayer can help. But those two will help - You who do not see pictures. They will help - and some day, when before a painting, you will see it without thought of the name of its author, or amount paid. You will see it in its glory - in the world of paint. You will have received the stigmata.