No. 123. The Emptiness of the Long-Distance Painter. So long had he sojourned in the realms of Malevich, Mondrian, Barnett Newman, Ad Reinhardt, Agnes Martin and, lately, Canadian painters Guido Molinari and Claude Tousignant, that he had come to a point of absolute evacuation. He was sitting for hours, gazing at a blank canvas and finding it to be unneedful of anything from from him. This, despite a clamorous, carping visit from three watchful muses, whose upbraiding of him was clearly coming to nothing.