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Dave Hickey

Dave Hickey Quotes

Art critic

Dave Hickey is an esteemed American art critic born on December 5, 1940. Known for his profound insights and unique critiques of contemporary art, his work spans a wide range of fields from modern to postmodern art, having a significant impact on the art world.

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All Art Ifs Thinking Artist Doe Ideas Political Should Blue Brain Church Culture Discourse Four Humans Jazz Jobs Knows Language Lizards

Famous Dave Hickey Quotes

“Beautiful art sells. If it sells itself, it is an idolatrous commodity; if it sells anything else, it is a seductive advertisement.”

Ifs Art Beautiful Sells Commerce Commodity Seductive Advertisements Beautiful Art

Book:The Invisible Dragon: Essays on Beauty, Revised and Expanded

Source: The Invisible Dragon: Essays on Beauty, Revised and Expanded

“Choosing beauty over content (or choosing beauty as content) is always an act of sedition. If we accept the cant of official culture, we must believe that the beauty we steal from any man-made thing is stolen from its more virtuous and metaphysical backstory, wherein "real" beauty is said to reside.”

Ifs Men Believe Made Said Real Culture Accepting Stealing Officials Virtuous Metaphysical Stolen Cant Real Beauty Man Made Things

Author:Dave Hickey

“I think that if you don't like something and it's not easy, you shouldn't be doing it.”

Ifs Thinking Easy Like Something

Author:Dave Hickey

“Most famous artists are created by their work and the idea of them as a character, and if they're smart and ambitious, they reinforce that character because they want to win. They want their views to prevail.”

Ifs Want Ideas Character Artist Winning Views Smart Ambitious Famous Artist

Author:Dave Hickey

“With the artists, I don't teach, I coach. I can't tell them how to make art. I tell them to make more art. I tell them to get up early and stay up late. I tell them not to quit. I tell them if somebody else is already making their work. My job is to be current with the discourse and not be an asshole. That's all I wanted in a professor.”

Ifs Art I Can Wanted Jobs Artist Teach Late Currents Coaches Quitting Get Up Professors Discourse Up Early

Author:Dave Hickey

“Even if one succeeds in making a silk purse out of a sow's ear, there remains the problem of what to do with a one-eared sow.”

Ifs Problem Succeed Ears Remains Purses Silk

Author:Dave Hickey

“It used to be that if you stood in front of a painting you didn't understand, you'd have some obligation to guess. Now you don't.”

Ifs Used Fronts Painting Obligation Used To Be

Author:Dave Hickey

“Jazz presumes that it would be nice if the four of us-simpatico dudes that we are-while playing this complicated song together, might somehow be free and autonomous as well. Tragically, this never quite works out. At best, we can only be free one or two at a time-while the other dudes hold onto the wire. Which is not to say that no one has tried to dispense with wires. Many have, and sometimes it works-but it doesn't feel like jazz when it does. The music simply drifts away into the stratosphere of formal dialectic, beyond our social concerns.”

Ifs Feels Wells Doe Two Sometimes Might Would Be Together Song Social Four Nice Concern Jazz Work Out Complicated Being Nice Formal Never Quit Wire Autonomous Dialectics Simpatico

Author:Dave Hickey

“If I go to London, everyone wants to talk about Damien Hirst. I'm just not interested in him. Never have been.”

Ifs Want Has Beens London Not Interested

Author:Dave Hickey

About the Author

Born: December 5, 1940
Known for: Art critic
Quotes: 31

Related Topics

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Books & Sources

Air Guitar: Essays on Art & DemocracyRelated source material

The Invisible Dragon: Essays on Beauty, Revised and ExpandedRelated source material

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