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Quote by Marsden Hartley

“My work embodies little visions of the great intangible. ... Some will say he's gone mad - others will look and say he's looked in at the lattices of Heaven and come back with the madness of splendor on him.”

Quote by Marsden Hartley

Author

Marsden Hartley

Marsden Hartley was an American painter recognized for his expressive and frequently abstract artworks. Born on January 4, 1877, in Lewiston, Maine, Hartley's artistic journey began with a focus on rural landscapes and traditional American themes. His style later evolved into a distinctive one, marked by vivid colors and geometric shapes, setting him apart from his contemporaries. Hartley's art often mirrored his personal experiences and emotional states, and he is regarded as a leading figure in American modernism. He passed away on September 2, 1943. more

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“It is the incongruous thing in my entire life, this isolation.. ... My work requires it - but I myself have no need or use for it - Perhaps once on a time I found isolation imperative - I think all chrysalides do - all embryos go for the underside of the leaf in the time of body-change preparing for the final reassertion -resurrection - the establishment of the entity. But now I've come up tot the outside of my casements.”

Thinking Needs Use Body Found Finals Come Up Isolation Establishment Resurrection Entity Preparing Leafs Imperatives Embryos Tots Body Change

Author:Marsden Hartley

“They are the gateway for our modern esthetic development, the prophets of the new time. They are most of all, the primitives of the way they have begun; they have voiced most of all the imperative need of essential personalism, of direct expression of direct experience.”

Way Needs Modern Expression Development Essentials Direct Prophet Imperatives Gateways

Book:Adventures in the Arts

Source: Adventures in the Arts

“I could never be French, I could never become German - I shall always remain American - the essence which is in me is American mysticism just as Davies declared it when he saw those first landscapes.”

Firsts Saws Essence Landscape Mysticism

Book:My Dear Stieglitz: Letters of Marsden Hartley and Alfred Stieglitz, 1912-1915

Source: My Dear Stieglitz: Letters of Marsden Hartley and Alfred Stieglitz, 1912-1915

“By getting as close to the true idea of religion, of spirituality as it is possible for us to get.. ...we would be in possession of the only tangible relationship tot the deity in things.”

Ideas Would Be Spirituality Possession Deities Tangible Tots

Author:Marsden Hartley

“The essential of a real picture is that the things which occur in it occur to him in his peculiarly personal fashion.. ..the idea of modernity is but a new attachment of things universal - a fresh relationship to the courses of the sun and to the living swing of the earth - a new fire of affection for the living essence present everywhere.”

Ideas Real Earth Courses Sun Fire Fashion Essentials Essence Universal Affection Attachment Swings Modernity

Author:Marsden Hartley

“Every painter must traverse for himself that distance from Paris to Aix (where Paul Cézanne worked a lot, fh) or from Venice to Toledo (where El Greco painted a lot, fh). Expression is for one knowing its own pivot. Every expressor relates solely to himself - that is the concern of the individualist.”

Knowing Expression Concern Distance Painter Relate Paris Venice Traverse Toledo

Author:Marsden Hartley

“My work has the abstraction underneath it all now & what I deliberately set out to do down here, for this is the perfect realistic abstraction in landscape.”

Perfect Landscape Realistic Abstraction

Author:Marsden Hartley

“the place (Dogtown, in Gloucester, Massachusetts, fh) is forsaken and majestically lovely as if nature had at last formed one spot where she can live for herself alone.. (it) looked like a cross between Easter Island and Stonehenge - essentially druidic in it appearance, it gives the feeling that an ancient race might turn up at any moment and renew an ageless rite there.”

Ifs Giving Moments Feelings Might Lasts Turns Race Crosses Ancient Appearance Lovely Spots Islands Easter Rite Massachusetts Forsaken Ageless Stonehenge Gloucester Easter Island

Author:Marsden Hartley

“I see the possibility of being 'made new' again and the gift of rebirth is all that lets anyone really live.. ..The great secret.. .. is never to get stuck, imprisoned in common social patterns. They always paralyse the real quality of life - the 'going onward' is all that matters, and the dead moments in one's life through trying to be a unit in any society or social concept are terrifying really.”

Trying Made Real Matter Moments Social Common Secret Quality Possibility Concepts Patterns Stuck Units Rebirth Quality Of Life

Author:Marsden Hartley

“When we label anyone 'bad', we will have more trouble dealing with him than if we could have settled for a lesser label.”

Ifs Trouble Labels

Author:William Glasser