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Artist Quotes

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Artist Quotes

“Many works of the past complete what they announce they are going to do, to our increasing boredom. Certain others plague me because I cannot follow their intentions. I can tell at a glance what Fabritius is doing, but I am spending my life trying to find out what Rembrandt was up to.”

Trying I Can Past Artist Certain Intention Spending Boredom Glances Plague

Author:Philip Guston

“The canvas is a court where the artist is prosecutor, defendant, jury and judge. Art without a trial disappears at a glance.”

Art Artist Judging Court Disappear Trials Canvas Glances Jury Prosecutor

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

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

“Lots of artists who paint have the experience to one degree or another... where their thinking doesn't precede their doing... It's a funny thing, what I really hate yet I have to go through with it, is the preparation.”

Thinking Artist Hate Degrees Paint Preparation Funny Things

Author:Philip Guston

“The only way an artist can communicate with the world at large is on the level of feeling.”

World Way Feelings Artist Levels Communication Communicate

Author:Howard Hodgkin

“The adventure of composition is a mystery. The muse has her ways, she hides from you, comes for you in the middle of the night, at midday, at dawn. You must believe wholeheartedly in this divine power. Its an elusive gift that can appear at any time, anywhere. Artists are in awe of it.”

Way Believe Artist Night Mystery Middle Divine Adventure Dawn Awe Composition Muse Elusive Middle Of The Night Divine Power Wholeheartedly

Author:Mickey Hart

“Being a recording artist and having thousands of people listening to your music and singing your songs, and paying for it? It feels great!”

People Feels Artist Song Listening Singing

Author:PJ Harvey

“I am interested in the non-dramatic moments in life. I`m not at all attracted to making films that are about drama. A few years back, I saw a biopic about a famous American abstract expressionist artist. And you know what? It really horrified me.”

Knows Years Moments Film Artist Saws Drama Dramatic Abstract

Author:Jim Jarmusch

“It does take a long time and a lot of paint to become our own artist.”

Long Doe Artist Time Long Time Paint

Author:Kate Jackson

“Is it my role as an artist to say something, to express, to be expressive? I think it's my role as an artist to bring to expression, it's not my role to be expressive.”

Thinking Artist Roles Expression Expressive

Book:Anish Kapoor: exposition du 16 octobre 1998 au 7 février 1999, capcMusée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux

Source: Anish Kapoor: exposition du 16 octobre 1998 au 7 février 1999, capcMusée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux

“I always wonder what drives us as Artists.”

Artist Wonder Ambition

Author:Diana Krall

“The first thing that any good artist has to develop is a sense of independence from the artworld. What really destroys a young artist is insecurity, the fear that everything could be taken away at any moment.”

Firsts Moments Young Artist Taken Independence Insecurity Good Art Good Artist Young Artists

Author:Jeff Koons

“I was always an artist. I was a broker to earn a living, but I was always thinking about my art.”

Thinking Art Artist Profession Always Thinking Brokers

Author:Jeff Koons

“Ads and logos are our shared global culture and language, and people are insisting on the right to use that language, to reformulate it in the way that artists and writers always do with cultural material,.”

People Way Use Artist Culture Language Materials Ads Insisting Logos Artists And Writers Culture And Language

Author:Naomi Klein

“I value those artists who embody the expression of their life.”

Artist Values Expression

Author:Wassily Kandinsky

“In place of an intensive cooperation among artists, there is a battle for goods. Hatred, partisanship, cliques, jealousy, and intrigues are the natural consequences of an aimless, materialist art.”

Art Artist Natural Battle Consequence Hatred Jealousy Goods Cooperation Intrigue Partisanship Clique Natural Consequences

Book:Concerning the Spiritual in Art: And Painting in Particular

Source: Concerning the Spiritual in Art: And Painting in Particular

“I really believe that I am the first and only artist to throw not just the 'subject' out of my paintings, but every 'object' as well.”

Firsts Believe Wells Artist Subjects Objects Painting

Author:Wassily Kandinsky

“If nothing will finally survive of life besides what artists report of it, we have no right to report what we know to be lies.”

Ifs Knows Truth Lying Artist Reports

Book:Real People: A Novel

Source: Real People: A Novel

“All artists are constantly looking for something and they don't always know what.”

Author:Jacob Lawrence

“A necessary process for the artist is one which begins with a point of view, a reaction to the environment, to people, to whatever it is one is concerned with.”

People Artist Process Views Environment Concerned Point Of View Reactions Methodology

Author:Jacques Lipchitz

“When artists make art, they shouldn't question whether it is permissible to do one thing or another.”

Art Artist One Thing

Author:Sol LeWitt

“The great artists do not seek their forms in the midst of the past, but take the deepest soundings they can of the genuine, profoundest of their age.”

Age Past Form Artist Genuine Midst Great Art Great Artist Timeliness

Author:Franz Marc

“I recommend that you should work actively... and study the artistic structures of Rubens, Rembrandt, Titian, Watteau, Poussin, and other painters, even Chardin, where he is an artist. Study very closely their dabbing manner of execution and try to copy a small piece of canvas, just one square inch.”

Should Trying Artist Study Pieces Masters Structure Painter Artistic Just One Copies Squares Inches Execution Canvas Small Pieces Rubens

Author:Kazimir Malevich

“Only dull and impotent artists screen their work with sincerity. In art there is need for truth, not sincerity.”

Needs Art Artist Screens Dull Sincerity

Author:Kazimir Malevich

“With the most primitive means the artist creates something which the most ingenious and efficient technology will never be able to create.”

Mean Art Able Artist Creativity Technology Creating Painter Efficient Primitive Ingenious Famous Artist Creating New Things

Author:Kazimir Malevich

“I learned the tricks... If you want to do academic things, you can do them. It is not difficult. Yet it is from this difficulty - the mistakes and dead ends - that artists develop, not through the quick solutions and not from something you learn and apply.”

Ifs Want Ends Artist Difficult Can Do Mistake Solutions Difficulty Tricks Academic Dead Ends

Author:Isamu Noguchi

“There's no greatest moment in the arts. It's a life; it's a continuity thing. You can't have a great moment because it's spiritual. It's a belief; it's a calling. If you're an artist, doing your own thing on your own, it's while you're doing it that counts. It's a process. If you get too elated, you can get too depressed.”

Ifs Art Moments Spiritual Artist Spirituality Belief Process Calling Continuity Great Moments Doing Your Own Thing

Author:LeRoy Neiman

“Financial firms are sending their back-office jobs overseas. But what do fine artists do? They create something new, unexpected, and delightful that changes the world. MFA abilities are harder to outsource and more important in an abundant world.”

World Important Jobs Artist Ability Fine Office Harder Financial Profession Firm Changing The World Unexpected Something New Delightful Fine Arts Fine Artists Office Jobs

Author:Daniel H. Pink

“What do artists do? Artists give people something they didn't know they were missing: a dance, a piece of music, a painting, a piece of sculpture. Catering to that need is the best business strategy.”

People Knows Needs Giving Artist Pieces Missing Painting Strategy Sculpture Business Strategy Best Business Catering

Author:Daniel H. Pink

“Symphony is the ability to see the big picture, connect the dots, combine disparate things into something new. Visual artists in particular are good at seeing how the pieces come together. I experienced this myself by trying to learn to draw.”

Trying Bigs Together Artist Ability Pieces Seeing Particular Draws Visuals Something New Symphony Dots Big Picture Visual Art Ability To See Visual Artist

Author:Daniel H. Pink

“Artists are modest. They know they're not doing the work; they're just taking dictation.”

Knows Artist Modest Dictation

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

“The artist and the fundamentalist both confront the same issue, the mystery of their existence as individuals.”

Artist Individual Existence Issues Mystery Fundamentalist

Author:Steven Pressfield

“As artists and professionals, it is our obligation to enact our own internal revolution, a private insurrection inside our own skulls. In this uprising we free ourselves from the tyranny of consumer culture.”

Artist Culture Revolution Tyranny Obligation Consumers Internals Skulls Uprising Insurrection Consumer Culture

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

“Painting, art in general, enchants me. It is my life. What else matters? When you put all your soul into a work, all that is noble in you, you cannot fail to find a kindred soul who understands you, and you do not need a host of such spirits. Is not that all an artist should wish for?”

Needs Should Art Soul Matter Spirit Desire Artist Wish Failing Painting Noble Your Soul Host Kindred Painting Art

Book:Camille Pissarro: letters to his son Lucien

Source: Camille Pissarro: letters to his son Lucien

“Most artists are doing basically the same thing - staying off the streets.”

Artist Streets Survival Staying

Book:Leave Any Information at the Signal: Writings, Interviews, Bits, Pages

Source: Leave Any Information at the Signal: Writings, Interviews, Bits, Pages

“I don't know what motivated the artist, which means that the paintings have an intrinsic quality. I think Goethe called it the 'essential dimension,' the thing that makes great works of art great.”

Thinking Knows Mean Art Artist Quality Greatness Painting Essentials Dimensions Works Of Art Motivated Great Work

Book:Gerhard Richter: writings 1961-2007

Source: Gerhard Richter: writings 1961-2007

“If we persist in our restless desire to know everything about the universe and ourselves, then we must not be afraid of what the artist brings back from his voyage of discovery.”

Ifs Knows Desire Artist Universe Discovery Persist Restless Voyages Voyages Of Discovery

Book:To Hell with Culture: And Other Essays on Art and Society

Source: To Hell with Culture: And Other Essays on Art and Society

“The fundamental purpose of the artist is the same as that of a scientist: to state a fact.”

States Facts Purpose Artist Scientist Fundamentals

Author:Herbert Read

“Even at this late date, I go into my studio, and I think 'Is this going to be it? Is it the end?' You see, nearly everything terrorizes me. When an artist loses that terror, he's through.”

Thinking Ends Artist Fear Loses Late Terror Studios

Author:Robert Rauschenberg

“The motif must always be set down in a simple way, easily grasped and understood by the beholder. By the elimination of superfluous detail, the spectator should be led along the road that the artist indicates to him, and from the first be made to notice what the artist has felt.”

Way Should Firsts Made Artist Felt Simple Understood Simplicity Details Spectators Superfluous Elimination Beholder Motifs Simple Ways

Author:Alfred Sisley

“So I went out and bought myself a copy of the Writer and Artist Yearbook, bought lots of magazines and got on the phone and talked to editors about ideas for stories. Pretty soon I found myself hired to do interviews and articles and went off and did them.”

Ideas Stories Artist Found Literature Phones Magazines Interviews Copies Editors Articles Yearbook

Author:Neil Gaiman

“After too much art that made too much sense, artists are operating blind again. They're more interested in the possible than the probable, the private that speaks publicly rather than the public with no private side at all.”

Art Made Artist Speak Sides Too Much Blind

Author:Jerry Saltz

“All great contemporary artists, schooled or not, are essentially self-taught and are de-skilling like crazy.”

Art Self Artist Crazy Taught Contemporary Schooled Contemporary Art Self Taught Proficiency

Author:Jerry Saltz

“Rumors sound of galleries asking artists for up-sized art and more of it... Everything winds up set to maximum in order to feed the beast. Bigness is not all bad. There's something pleasing about large, well-lit spaces. But the bigness has also led to a narrowing of sensibilities, by making it very hard for any but the glitziest works to get traction.”

Wells Art Hard Artist Order Sound Space Wind Asking Beast Sensibility Lit Maximum Rumor Gallery Traction

Author:Jerry Saltz

“While the space for artists and curators has increased enormously, maybe, just maybe, that's left room for too many people calling themselves artists and curators who are simply not up to the term.”

People Artist Left Term Space Rooms Calling Curator

Author:Jerry Saltz

“Nothing is more subtly destructive than a closed circle of artists feeding on one another. Envy grows from insignificant differences between people, not from overwhelming inequalities... it was envy that forced them to emulate each other, not esteem.”

People Artist Grows Differences Envy Circles Esteem Inequality Destructive Overwhelming Feeding Insignificant Emulate

Author:Alexander Theroux

“I wish to be of service to the artists of our own day, by showing them how a small beginning leads to the highest elevation, and how from so noble a situation it is possible to fall to utmost ruin, and consequently, how these arts resemble nature as shown in our human bodies.”

Humans Art Body Artist Fall Wish Situation Teaching Highest Noble Ruins Human Body Elevation Small Beginnings

Author:Giorgio Vasari

“They say that art should stand the test of time. Life lasts a limited amount of time. Mountains and trees and earth will outlive human beings, but we don't know if they will be here always. Art does outlast the life span of its maker. Art should communicate to an increasing circle of strangers-people who do not know the artist, but come to know the work, and through the work, come to know something about the humanity of the artist that rings with their own humanity.”

Source: Letters to a Young Artist: Straight-up Advice on Making a Life in the Arts-For Actors, Performers, Writers, and Artists of Every Kind

“The romantic artist, off alone in his storm-battered castle, fuming whole worlds from his brain, reflects his culture's most persistent myth, of God creating from a primal loneliness.”

World Whole Artist Culture Brain Loneliness Creating Storm Myth Whole World Persistent Castles Primal Battered

Book:Confessions of a conservative

Source: Confessions of a conservative

“You will face boredom and frustration your entire career as artists. You will be very frustrated seeking a voice/style that collectors can connect with. Once you accomplish that voice/style people are clamoring for, you will become bored doing it.”

People Faces Artist Voice Careers Style Seeking Accomplish Bored Boredom Frustration Frustrated Collectors

Book:Mystery of Making It: Reveals the Secrets of Marketing Art-How Artist Senkarik Sold the First Piece in 1980 and has Exceeded $7 Million in Sales

Source: Mystery of Making It: Reveals the Secrets of Marketing Art-How Artist Senkarik Sold the First Piece in 1980 and has Exceeded $7 Million in Sales

“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