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Quote by Patti Smith

“It is said that children do not distinguish between living and inanimate objects; I believe they do. A child imparts a doll or a tin soldier with magical life breath. The artist animates his work as the child his toys”

Quote by Patti Smith

Author

Patti Smith
Patti Smith

Patti Smith is an influential American singer-songwriter, born on December 30, 1946. Known for her unique musical style and poetic lyrics, she is considered one of the pioneers of post-punk and punk rock. Smith's music career began in the 1970s, and she quickly became a star in the underground music scene. Her debut album 'Horses' was released in 1975 and is considered a landmark in punk rock. more

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“Picasso was right to start painting the dreary and dejected. The blues. He looked out the window at his own misery. I could respect that. But these painters of fruit thought only of their own mortality, as though the beauty of their work would somehow soothe their fears of death. There they all were, hanging feckless and candid and meaningless, paintings of things, objects, the paintings themselves just things, objects, withering toward their own inevitable demise.”

“You can’t selectively numb your anger, any more than you can turn off all lights in a room, and still expect to see the light.”

“The professional iconoclast is such either because he does not understand the nature of images and rites, or because he does not trust the understanding of those who practice iconolatory or follow rites. call the other man an idolater or superstitious is, generally speaking, only a manner of asserting our own superiority. Idolatry is the misuse of symbols, a definition needing no further qualifications. The traditional philosophy has nothing to say against the use of symbols and rites ; though there is much that the most orthodox can have to say against their misuse. It may be emphasized that the danger of treating verbal formulae as absolutes is generally greater than that of misusing plastic images.”

“We have shown that art is essentially symbolic, and only accidentally illustrative or historical ; and finally that art, even the highest, is only the means to an end, that even the scriptural art is only a manner of "seeing through a glass, darkly," and that although this is far better than not to see at all, the utility of iconography must come to an end when vision is "face to face.”