An undated lined journal page handwritten by Stuart Sutcliffe that begins "notes Johns descriptions of painting; 'I'm not against anything, but I'm more for myself. I don't know who I am, but I'm not them anymore." Accompanied by a small piece of paper that appears cut from the same journal. Reads in part, "Manuscript for the Novel/ 'Spotlight on Johnny.'*
Attempted transcript by me:
Notes Johns descriptions of painting. “I’m not against anything, but I’m more for myself. I don’t know who I am but I’m not them anymore.” “When you’ve got to ask what it is you’ll never really know.” (L. Armstrong.) “Revolted against awesome dominance of Paris and the far ? shadow of Pablo Picasso.” Strange anatomical images and fragments of observed nature. The cult of - meaninglessness, proof of the emptiness of our existance in industrial society. “A brave new world - unfestered”. “The Human mind is an instrument it gives coherence to perception and dominates the impulses which we call instinct and emotion. I felt the impulse to flee mundane world of appearances. Its like a young woman who is quite capable of having children but not producing them until the seed inside her is fertilised by another mature source.” - (try and enlarge this.) “Everything in life has rhythm.” “No human work could possibly be devoid of content, and how can a painted work conform to the same requirements as a written text.” “Nowadays we are more attracted by the ways things are presented, we are less interested in things in themselves. We are more interested in the manner in which a man walks rather than where he is walking to.” (enlarge on the comparison of Rembrandt and De Staël.). “I always have a point of departure, but I transpose it.
*This could possibly be referring to this novel that Stuart was working on.
