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Art Quotes

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Art Quotes

“Only an individual can imagine, invent, or create. The whole audience of art is an audience of individuals.”

Art Whole Individual Audience Imagine Art Is Individuality

Book:The Shape of Content

Source: The Shape of Content

“The apprehension of... values is intuitive; but it is not a built-in intuition, not something with which one is born. Intuition in art is actually the result of... prolonged tuition.”

Art Values Born Results Art Is Built Intuition Intuitive Apprehension Tuition

Author:Ben Shahn

“I deny that art can be taught, or, in other words, maintain that art is completely individual, and that the talent of each artist is but the result of his own inspiration and his own study of past tradition.”

Art Inspiration Past Artist Individual Results Education Study Talent Taught Art Is Tradition Deny

Author:Gustave Courbet

“The experiential test of whether this art is great or good, or minor or abysmal is the effect it has on your own sense of the world and of yourself. Great art changes you.”

World Art Effects Greatness Art Is Tests Minors Great Art

Author:Wendy Beckett

“What's really good about the word 'art' is that 'art' is a word like 'love,' or 'god,' or whatever. It transcends so many things.”

Art Art Is Like Love

Author:Tracey Emin

“The true test of all the arts is not solely whether the production is a true copy of nature, but whether it answers the end of art, which is to produce a pleasing effect upon the mind.”

Mind Art Ends Answers Emotion Effects Produce Art Is Tests Productions Copies

Book:The Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds: Containing His Discourses, Idlers, A Journey to Flanders and Holland, and His Commentary on Du Fresnoy's Art of Painting; to which is Prefixed an Account of the Life and Writings of the Author by Edward Malone

Source: The Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds: Containing His Discourses, Idlers, A Journey to Flanders and Holland, and His Commentary on Du Fresnoy's Art of Painting; to which is Prefixed an Account of the Life and Writings of the Author by Edward Malone

“The great end of all arts is to make an impression on the imagination and the feeling. The imitation of nature frequently does this. Sometimes it fails and something else succeeds.”

Doe Art Ends Sometimes Feelings Purpose Imagination Failing Succeed Art Is Impression Imitation

Book:The Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds: Containing His Discourses, Idlers, A Journey to Flanders and Holland, and His Commentary on Du Fresnoy's Art of Painting; to which is Prefixed an Account of the Life and Writings of the Author by Edward Malone

Source: The Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds: Containing His Discourses, Idlers, A Journey to Flanders and Holland, and His Commentary on Du Fresnoy's Art of Painting; to which is Prefixed an Account of the Life and Writings of the Author by Edward Malone

“Art is a game. Too bad for him who makes a duty of it.”

Art Play Games Duty Art Is

Author:Max Jacob

“I believe that the making of art is primarily for the benefit of the artist. If what the artist has created communicates messages and feelings to others, then it is because of the universality of the human experience that is speaking through the work of art.”

Ifs Believe Humans Art Feelings Artist I Believe Communication Benefits Messages Art Is Communicate Works Of Art Human Experience Universality

Author:David Walker

“To select, combine and concentrate that which is beautiful in nature and admirable in art is as much the business of the landscape painter in his line as in the other departments of art.”

Art Beautiful Lines Art Is Painter Landscape Department Select Admirable

Author:J. M. W. Turner

“The justification of art is the internal combustion it ignites in the hearts of men and not its shallow, externalized, public manifestations.”

Men Heart Art Art Is Burning Manifestation Internals Justification Shallow Ignite Combustion

Author:Glenn Gould

“Art is about emotion; if art needs to be explained it is no longer art.”

Ifs Needs Art Emotion Art Is

Author:Pierre-Auguste Renoir

“Art is a language, an instrument of knowledge, an instrument of communication.”

Art Language Communication Art Is Instruments

Book:Jean Dubuffet: Two Decades, 1943-1962 : November 1 - December 31, 1983

Source: Jean Dubuffet: Two Decades, 1943-1962 : November 1 - December 31, 1983

“Art is not the spiritual side of business.”

Art Spiritual Sides Business Art Is

Book:Art-as-art: The Selected Writings of Ad Reinhardt

Source: Art-as-art: The Selected Writings of Ad Reinhardt

“One way to cope with the provocations of novel art is to rest firm and maintain solid standards... set by the critic's long-practiced taste and by his conviction that only those innovations will be significant which promote the established direction of advanced art.”

Way Long Art Novel Taste Standards Art Is Innovation Critics Conviction Significant One Way Firm Provocation Standards Set

Author:Leo Steinberg

“Art experts are unfailingly opposed to Art for the simple reason that they are interested in Art - but Art is not interested in Art. Art is interested in life.”

Art Reason Interest Simple Art Is Experts Not Interested

Author:Stephen Vizinczey

“Art is eternally young, but the poet ages. If only he remained as young as art! If only it aged with him!”

Ifs Art Age Young Poet Art Is Aging

Author:Franz Grillparzer

“Modern Art is being used to index me. Surely it was a source but photographers have influenced Modern Art quite as deeply as they have been influenced, maybe more. Anyway painters don't have a copyright on M. A. We were all born in the same upheaval.”

Has Beens Art Used Born Modern Source Art Is Photographer Painter Modernism Copyright Modern Art Upheaval

Book:EW:100: centennial essays in honor of Edward Weston

Source: EW:100: centennial essays in honor of Edward Weston

“Nothing could be further from the authentic art of our time than the idea of a rupture of continuity. Art is - among other things - continuity, and unthinkable without it.”

Art Ideas Reality Art Is Our Time Continuity Unthinkable Rupture

Book:The Collected Essays and Criticism, Volume 4: Modernism with a Vengeance, 1957-1969

Source: The Collected Essays and Criticism, Volume 4: Modernism with a Vengeance, 1957-1969

“We learned from Gauguin that every work of art is a transposition, a caricature, a passionate equivalent of a sensation which has been experienced. He freed us from all restraints which the idea of copying naturally placed on our painter's instincts. All artists are now free to express their own personality.”

Has Beens Art Ideas Artist Freedom Personality Art Is Instinct Passionate Painter Works Of Art Sensations Restraint Caricatures Copying

Author:Maurice Denis

“The purpose of truly transcendent art is to express something you are not yet, but something that you can become.”

Art Purpose Art Is Transcendent

Book:The Mission of Art

Source: The Mission of Art

“Art is not a career - it's a life.”

Art Careers Art Is Profession

Author:Andy Goldsworthy

“There are so many things in the world - in the cities - so much to see. Does art need to represent this variety and contribute to its proliferation? Can art be that free? The difficulties begin when you understand what it is that the soul will not permit the hand to make.”

World Needs Doe Art Soul Hands Cities Art Is Difficulty Variety Permit Proliferation

Book:Philip Guston: Collected Writings, Lectures, and Conversations

Source: Philip Guston: Collected Writings, Lectures, and Conversations

“One of the weaknesses of much abstract painting is the attempt to substitute the inventions of the intellect for a pristine imaginative conception. The inner life of a human being is a vast and varied realm and does not concern itself alone with stimulating arrangements of color, form and design. The term 'life' as used in art is something not to be held in contempt, for it applies all of its existence, and the province of art is to react to it and not to shun it. Painting will have to deal more fully and less obliquely with life and nature's phenomena before it can again be great.”

“One of the great currents in the contemporary experience of art is that it seems to come out of the experience of the author.”

Art Seems Art Is Currents Contemporary Contemporary Art

Author:Anish Kapoor

“I'm making some of the greatest art being made now. It'll take the art world ten years to get around to it.”

World Years Art Made Ten Art Is Recognition Art World

Author:Jeff Koons

“The supreme morality of art is to endure.”

Art Morality Art Is Endure Supreme

Author:Stanley Kunitz

“It should not be forgotten that art is not a science where the latest 'correct' theory declares the old to be false and erases it.”

Should Art Theory Art Is Forgotten Erase

Book:Kandinsky, Complete Writings on Art

Source: Kandinsky, Complete Writings on Art

“All art is erotic. The first ornament to have been invented, the cross, was of erotic origin. It was the first work of art. A horizontal stroke: the woman lying down. A vertical stroke: the male who penetrates her.”

Firsts Has Beens Art Lying Art Is Crosses Males Works Of Art Strokes Erotic Penetrate Ornaments Vertical Horizontal Lying Down

Author:Adolf Loos

“The system is the work of art; the visual work of art is the proof of the System. The visual aspect can't be understood without understanding the system. It isn't what it looks like but what it is that is of basic importance.”

Looks Art Understanding Understood Art Is Aspect Importance Proof Visuals Works Of Art

Author:Sol LeWitt

“Just as the development of earth art and installation art stemmed from the idea of taking art out of the galleries, the basis of my involvement with public art is a continuation of wall drawings.”

Art Ideas Earth Progress Wall Development Art Is Bases Drawing Involvement Gallery Continuation Installation Art Galleries Public Art

Author:Sol LeWitt

“The instinct that pulls us toward art is the impulse to evolve, to learn, to heighten and elevate our consciousness. The Ego hates this. Because the more awake we become, the less we need the Ego.”

Needs Art Hate Consciousness Ego Art Is Instinct Evolve Impulse Awake

Book:The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles

Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles

“Art is always to a large extent about need, despair and hopelessness.”

Needs Art Despair Art Is Desperation Hopelessness

Author:Gerhard Richter

“I would like to try to understand what is. We know very little, and I am trying to do it by creating analogies. Almost every work of art is an analogy.”

Knows Trying Littles Art Understanding Creating Art Is Works Of Art Analogies

Book:Gerhard Richter: writings 1961-2007

Source: Gerhard Richter: writings 1961-2007

“Art is an indecent exposure of the consciousness.”

Art Consciousness Art Is Exposure Indecent Exposure

Author:Herbert Read

“Art is not and never has been subordinate to moral values. Moral values are social values; aesthetic values are human values. Morality seeks to restrain the feelings; art seeks to define them by externalizing them, by giving them significant form. Morality has only one aim - the ideal good; art has quite another aim - the objective truth... art never changes.”

“The classicist, and the naturalist who has much in common with him, refuse to see in the highest works of art anything but the exercise of judgement, sensibility, and skill. The romanticist cannot be satisfied with such a normal standard; for him art is essentially irrational - an experience beyond normality, sometimes destructive of normality, and at the very least evocative of that state of wonder which is the state of mind induced by the immediately inexplicable.”

“Art is good, bad, boring, ugly, useful to us or not. It does or doesn't disturb optical monotony, and succeeds or fails in surmounting sterility of style or visual stereotype; it creates new beauty or it doesn't.”

Doe Art Failing Style Succeed Art Is Ugly Boring Visuals Stereotype Monotony

Author:Jerry Saltz

“Not every good idea survives. Not every new form of art is repeated. Not every new potential instinct is successful. Only the successful ones get repeated. By natural selection and then through repetition they become probable, more habitual.”

Art Ideas Form Natural Successful Art Is Instinct Very Good Good Ideas Repetition Selection Natural Selection Habitual

Author:Rupert Sheldrake

“I don't think there is room for 'artistic temperament.' Professional artists understand art is a business. If businesses ran their companies like many artists do their careers, they would not stay open a year.”

Ifs Thinking Years Art Artist Rooms Business Company Careers Art Is Artistic Ran Temperament Artistic Temperament

Author:Jack White

“Art is only worth what people will pay for it. Artists do not get paid by the hour.”

People Art Artist Hours Pay Art Is Paid

Author:Jack White

“Religion without art is a dead system of dogmas which have no effect on life.”

Art Religion Effects Art Is Dogma

Book:Insights of a Himalayan pilgrim

Source: Insights of a Himalayan pilgrim

“I think that art is supposed to be ahead of the times.”

Thinking Art Art Is Supposed To Be

Author:Anna Deavere Smith

“Maybe this is a utopian view of art but I do believe that art can function as a vehicle, that it isn't just a cultural pursuit, something that happens in art galleries. Unless art is linked to experience and the fear and joy of that, it becomes mere icing on the cake.”

Believe Art Happens Joy Views Art Is Experience Function Mere Pursuit Cake Vehicle Linked Gallery Utopian Icing Art Galleries Icing On The Cake

Author:Antony Gormley

“The aim of art is a constant, and a continuous job to reveal visually the attitude of our mentality. And the less we disturb the influence of our mentality the more I believe we come close to the truth.”

Believe Art Jobs I Believe Attitude Influence Art Is Aim Constant Revelations Mentality

Author:Josef Albers

“Realism' has been abandoned in the search for reality: the 'principal objective' of abstract art is precisely this reality.”

Has Beens Art Reality Art Is Objectives Abstract Abandoned Realism Principal Abstract Art

Book:Ben Nicholson: drawings and painted reliefs

Source: Ben Nicholson: drawings and painted reliefs

“What modern art means is that you have to keep finding new ways to express yourself, to express the problems, that there are no settled ways, no fixed approach. This is a painful situation, and modern art is about this painful situation of having no absolutely definite way of expressing yourself.”

Way Mean Art Problem Situation Modern Findings Approach Art Is Painful Fixed New Ways Definite Express Yourself Bourgeois Modernism Modern Art Painful Situations

Book:Bourgeois

Source: Bourgeois

“Everywhere in the modern world there is neglect, the need to be recognized, which is not satisfied. Art is a way of recognizing oneself, which is why it will always be modern.”

World Way Needs Art Modern Art Is Oneself Satisfied Recognition Neglect Recognizing Modern World

Book:Bourgeois

Source: Bourgeois

“Art is not arbitrary. A fine painting is not there by accident; it is not arrived at by chance. We are sensitive to tonalities.”

Art Chance Painting Fine Art Is Accidents Sensitive Arbitrary

Book:Sommer: Words

Source: Sommer: Words

“I have no idea of what it's going to look like when I start a piece. Making art is like having a relationship. You want to bring in some ideas, but if you don't allow it to develop naturally and speak to you as it develops, you end up imposing and projecting upon it.”

Ifs Want Looks Art Ideas Ends Speak Pieces Art Is Planning No Idea Imposing

Author:Nick Bantock