Quotessence
Home / Authors / Rudolf Arnheim
Rudolf Arnheim

Rudolf Arnheim Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllArtOrderHumansIfsMenObjectsShapesEyeScienceUnderstandingWayAccountsActionArt IsArtistConditionsCountryDifferentEntropyEquilibrium

Famous Rudolf Arnheim Quotes

“No longer can we consider what the artist does to be a self-contained activity, mysteriously inspired from above, unrelated and unrelatable to other human activities. Instead, we recognize the exalted kind of seeing that leads to the creation of great art as an outgrowth of the humbler and more common activity of the eyes in everyday life. Just as the prosaic search for information is "artistic" because it involves giving and finding shape and meaning, so the artist's conceiving is an instrument of life, a refined way of understanding who and where we are.”

WayGivingHumansKindDoeArtSelfEyeArtistUnderstandingCommonSeeingInformationCreationActivityShapesFindingsInstrumentsInspiredEverydayArtisticEveryday LifeGreat ArtRefinedExaltedHuman ActivitySelf ContainedConceiving
Book:Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye
Create image

“From building a fire one can learn something about artistic composition. If you use only small kindling and large logs, the fire will quickly eat up the small pieces but will not become strong enough to attack the large ones. You must supply a scale of sizes from the smallest to the largest. The human eye also will not make its way into a painting or building unless a continuum of shapes leads from the small to the large, from the large to the small.”

IfsWayHumansEnoughUseEyeStrongFirePiecesBuildingPaintingShapesSizeScalesArtisticSmallestCompositionStrong EnoughContinuumHuman EyesSmall PiecesKindling
Author:Rudolf Arnheim
Create image

“Nothing is more humbling than to look with a strong magnifying glass at an insect so tiny that the naked eye sees only the barest speck and to discover that nevertheless it is sculpted and articulated and striped with the same care and imagination.”

LooksEyeCareStrongImaginationHumilityPrideGlassesTinyNakedNeverthelessInsectsHumblingSpecksMagnifyingMagnifying GlassNaked Eyes
Book:Parables of Sun Light: Observations on Psychology, the Arts, and the Rest
Create image