I think the quotes below from Fechin relate to the idea of excellence of execution being a meaningful element in its own right...
Quoted on:
http://underpaintings.blogspot.com.au/2009/08/color-palettes-nicolai-ivanovich-fechin.html
(it's very well illustrated too)
In his "Notes on Art, " Nicolai Fechin states:
... a high degree of expertise in technique has always had, and always will have, a predominant place in art. The subject, in itself, has value only according to the mode of the day. Tomorrow it will be superseded by a new fashion or fad. With the passing of time, the subject loses much of its meaning. But the fine execution of that subject retains its value...
The more consummate his technique, the easier the artist will find it to free himself from all dependence upon a subject. What he uses to fill his canvas with is not so vital. What is vital is how he does it. It is sad if an artist becomes a slave to the object he seeks to portray. The portrayed object must serve as nothing more than an excuse to fill a canvas. Only when the subject passes through the filter of his creative faculty does his work acquire value for an artist...
The artist must never forget that he is dealing with the entire canvas, and not with any one section of it. Regardless of what he sets out to paint , the problem remains one and the same. With his own creative originality, he must fill in his canvas and make of it an organic whole. There must not be any particularly favored spot in the painting...
My way of drawing and painting can be taught only through direct visual perception and it is almost impossible to describe it. An attitude toward painting and a few technical fundamentals can be discussed, however- but always with a warning not to take my observations in an overly literal or rigidly set manner...
To me, technique should be unlimited... (in) constant growth in ability and understanding. It must never be mere virtuosity but an endless accumulation of qualities and wisdom... First comes the initial idea for a work- what the artist desires to portray, to bring into concrete manifestation. In order to fulfill this task, he must begin to build, to organize."
Peggy Samuels, Harold Samuels, Joan Samuels, and Daniel Fabian, Techniques of the Artists of the American West (New Jersey: The Wellfleet Press, 1990), p. 94.