“In our second year, our school ordered a set of Anthology of the World’s Fine Art. There were works by the impressionist and classical painters in it. I think it was a set of 30 books. You could only look at it if you were in the oil painting class. You couldn’t look at it if you were in the sketching class because only the oil painters had to learn about colour. You had to make an appointment with the oil painting teacher… When the class went to see the anthology, there was a pan of water outside the door—everyone had to wash their hands first so the books wouldn’t get dirty. After that, we could enter the classroom. Looking at those books, you wanted to just dig out your eyeballs and save all the information from the books in them. You tried desperately to remember every detail, every colour and every image.”