Lipton’s Journal/January 31, 1955/357

Modern painting. The abstract painting reduces from life, condenses from life. It is essentially a social art, a diminishing art. But non-objective painting is the swelling up, the magnifying of a moment, a microcosm, it is the magnification of something apparently tiny or insignificant. So, it seems to have no relation to anything—except perhaps the hen-tracks and scratching of various electronic particles on photographic plates under the new microscopes. And indeed why could this not be true. Somewhere within itself the brain must understand the nature of the atom, know how it moves. But this is speculation. What is important is that non-objective painting is the first of the arts to move from society into the H. It goes beyond Time because it does not attempt to condense Time which is the essence of history, social understanding, reason, classified knowledge, etc. etc. etc. Instead it expands Time, it takes the moment and swells it into the creation. If I am ever to write more novels I shall have to take what is essentially a moment and swell it into a book.