Agnes Martin: What is Real?

Joy is Perception. Perception, reception and response are all the same. Sometimes we perceive, sometimes we receive and sometimes we respond but it is all the same.
It is all awareness of reality.
In a Chinese vase we can see all that the artist rejected in order to have as close an approximation as possible to his response to reality. We can feel as he felt looking at his work. The same response is made continually over a thousand years. Proving it is reality. That is what art is about.
There is no such thing as "contemporary" art. Any material may be used but the theme is the same and the response is the same for all art work.

(Excerpt from Agnes Martin: Writings, edited by Herausgegeben von Dieter Schwarz, Cantz: 1992, p. 96)