When the news of Theo's tragic death in an automobile accident reached our Faculty and graduate students here at Columbia University, it occasioned great shock and consternation. For Theo's presence among us is remembered. He is remembered by those who like myself worked with him during his studies in our program, remembered as a gifted young painter of extraordinary energy coupled with a sense of personal vision.
I have been re-reading Theo's Essay. He cho- se as his topic "Art in the'South and Art in the North". I should like to select from it two quotes which express for me the core of Theo's thinking about art and about his feelings for his place in it."It is" he wrote "also known that one piece of art, in order to be great, should contain more or less a portion of unconscious expression as well as the ability of the artist to make judgements".
And "So the Greeks created the term 'enthusiastic' to describe all of this" (technai)... a "term which comes from the words en theos and it all means 'by God'". "
Theo's painting grew in vision and vitality. The range and resonance of his concepts were escalating within these sets of premises. It is our loss that we shall not experience the full flower of his promise.