I came to explore abstract art at a time when all other approaches seemed too limited. I had been a realist painter - grown up in a culture without any real tradition in art. To grow up in these circumstances provides one with a set of conditions which are quite unique. These conditions (alienation, lack of identity) can be advantageous as well as disadvantageous. The lack of any strong tradition does leave one free to explore and to build on other or new aspects of experience, and with confidence it should be an ideal environment for those who wish to break with the past and to build on the present alone. Unfortunately, I am not one of these. For me, abstract art is not a break with art - it is merely a continuation of the best aspects of art in a condensed. concentrated form. The demands of art, of society, of the personal problems of identity with which we are faced are best dealt with in the most direct manner possible - abstraction is such a direct manner.