“I have a fairly unwieldy set of concerns that go into determining what I do in the paintings, such as the history of the decorative, patterns of cultural migration, Islamic art and design, Byzantine architecture, the annals of natural history, as well as contemporary painting. All of these things are filtered through my own sense of cultural urgency. How I proceed with the work has to do with how I respond to this instinctively chosen mass of materials. I'm weighing many things and making many decisions before I even get started on a painting.” ArtNaturalDecisionDesignPaintingConcernArchitectureChosenIslamicUrgency Author:Philip Taaffe
“Ideas in art may be quite evident, and sometimes they're hidden. Sometimes they're simple, and sometimes they're quite complex. Great works of art can be based on very simple ideas, but it's all in the making, isn't it? It's in the facture.” ArtSometimesSimpleGreat Work Author:Philip Taaffe
“Art exists through the act of making. It has to somehow be made manifest to another person. It has to do with what one wants to see manifest, what one wants to bring into the world, what one desires to have exist.” WorldArtDesireManifest Author:Philip Taaffe
“It's hard to fathom the psychology of the economics of art. I don't quite understand it, and I don't necessarily want to understand it.” ArtPsychology Author:Philip Taaffe
“I'm very tolerant of other art and other artists. But what I truly appreciate, what I truly admire in contemporary art, is work that takes on more than it can sometimes handle - art that gets in over its head.” ArtSometimesArtistArt IsAppreciateAdmireOver It Author:Philip Taaffe
“I'm not so interested in this series of ruptures, where minimalism took over pop art, and then neo-expressionism was a triumph over that. I'm not interested in rupture - I'm interested in healing, bringing things together, building bridges. Not dismissing what has come before as a kind of modernist precedent, where one thing has to be broken in order to achieve something else. I don't believe in that kind of attitude. I think we're beyond that at this stage.” ThinkingBelieveKindArtTogetherHealingAttitudeAchieveBuildingBrokenNot InterestedMinimalismPop Art Author:Philip Taaffe