Best century & artist Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“To understand Occupy Wall Street, you have to understand artists. Art is freedom - freedom of expression - and its message has resonated through society for centuries.”

Art Artist Streets Century Expression Wall Messages Art Is Freedom Of Expression Occupy Wall Street

Author:Peter M. Brant

“It is my opinion that the 21st century will be the century of play, and the heteroglossic activity of artists in the 20th century has been the forecast.”

Has Beens Play Artist Opinion Century Activity 21st Century 20th Century Forecasts

Author:Brian Sutton-Smith

“To an art historian a Giotto is a 14th Century painting. To an artist it was painted yesterday. We free ourselves from the past when we see it freshly.”

Art Past Artist Century Painting Masters Yesterday Historian Giotto

Author:Walter Darby Bannard

“It may happen in the next hundred years that the English novelists of the present day will come to be valued as we now value the artists and craftsmen of the late eighteenth century.”

Years May Happens Artist Values Next Century Late Hundred Novelists Present Day Craftsman

Book:The world of Evelyn Waugh

Source: The world of Evelyn Waugh

“The element of heroic maleness had always been present in the concept of the artist as one who rides the winged horse above the clouds beyond the sight of lesser men, a concept seldom applied to those who worked with colours until the nineteenth century. When the inevitable question is asked, "Why are there no great women artists?" it is this dimension of art that is implied. The askers know little of art, but they know the seven wonders of the painting world.”

Source: The Obstacle Race: The Fortunes of Women Painters and Their Work

“If within the last century art conceived as an autonomous activity has come to be invested with an unprecedented stature - the nearest thing to a sacramental human activity acknowledged by secular society - it is because one of the tasks art has assumed is making forays into and taking up positions on the frontiers of consciousness (often very dangerous to the artist as a person) and reporting back what's there.”

Ifs Humans Persons Art Lasts Artist Consciousness Century Dangerous Position Activity Tasks Secular Frontiers Unprecedented Stature Human Activity Autonomous Secular Society

Author:Susan Sontag

“Berthe Morisot was a painter full of eighteenth-century delicacy and grace; in a word, the last elegant and 'feminine' artists since Fragonard.”

Lasts Artist Grace Century Painter Feminine Elegant Delicacy

Author:Pierre-Auguste Renoir

“If paintings are so important - worth so much, reproduced, cherished, and visited so often - then isn't it troubling that we can hardly make emotional contact with the artists? Few centuries, it seems, are as determinedly tearless as ours.”

Ifs Important Seems Artist Century Emotional Painting Importance Contact

Author:James Elkins

“For me art is a continuous discovery into reality, an exploration of visual data which has been going on for centuries, each artist contributing to the next generation's advancement. I wanted to go a step further and extend the boundaries.”

Has Beens Art Reality Wanted Artist Next Steps Generations Century Art Is Discovery Boundaries Data Visuals Exploration Next Generation Advancement Contributing

Book:Breaking the rules: Audrey Flack, a retrospective 1950-1990

Source: Breaking the rules: Audrey Flack, a retrospective 1950-1990

“Picasso has a volatile, explosive presence. He seems to take art back to an earlier function, before the centuries of museums and masterpieces; he is the artist as clown, as conjurer, as master funmaker.”

Art Seems Artist Century Masters Function Museums Masterpiece Clown Explosives

Book:5001 Nights at the Movies

Source: 5001 Nights at the Movies

“The poetical tendency of the present and of the preceding century has been divided in a manner singularly curious. One loud and conspicuous faction of bards, giving way to the corrupt influences of a decaying general culture, seems to have abandoned all the properties of versification and reason in its mad scramble after sensational novelty; whilst the other and quieter school constituting a more logical evolution from the poesy of the Georgian period, demands an accuracy of rhyme and metre unknown even to the polished artists of the age of Pope.”

“Norman Rockwell, the Brueghel of the 20th century bourgeoisie, the Holbein of Jell-O ads and magazine covers; by common assent, the most American artist of all.”

Artist Common Century Magazines Ads 20th Century Bourgeoisie Magazine Covers

Author:Jerry Adler

“Winter makes a bridge between one year and another and, in this case, one century and the next.”

Years Artist Next Cases Century Winter Bridges

Author:Andy Goldsworthy

“And their pals vote for their stuff when they're not on the panel, and it just keeps going that way. And they tend to be very fringe artists, so anything before the 20th century is not worth considering. This is out of date.”

Way Artist Stuff Century Vote Keep Going Considering 20th Century Fringe Pals

Author:Charlton Heston

“One of the major changes in attitude that occurred in the world of art as we moved from the nineteenth into the twentieth century was that the twentieth century artist became more involved with personal expression than with celebrating exclusively the values of the society or the church. Along with this change came a broader acceptance of the belief that the artist can invent a reality that is more meaningful than the one that is literally given to the eye. I subscribe enthusiastically to this.”

“The twentieth-century artist who uses symbols is alienated because the system of symbols is a private one. After you have dealt with the symbols you are still private, you are still lonely, because you are not sure anyone will understand it except yourself. The ransom of privacy is that you are alone.”

Stills Use Artist Century Loneliness Lonely Symbols Not Sure Privacy Twentieth Century Symbolism Ransom

Author:Louise Bourgeois

“I consider Otto Rank to be one of the great spiritual giants of the twentieth century, a genius as a psychologist and a saint as a human being. Though vilified by his original community of Freudians, he never became bitter. He died a feminist and deeply committed to social justice, in 1939....His deep understanding of creativity makes him a mentor for all of us living in a postmodern world....I believe that Art and Artist, especially chapters 12 to 14, may well emerge as the most valuable psychoanalysis of the spiritual life in our time.”

“Only the bad artists of the nineteenth century were frightened by the invention of photography; the good ones all welcomed it and used it.”

Used Artist Century Photography Invention Frightened Nineteenth Century

Book:The romantic rebellion: romantic versus classic art

Source: The romantic rebellion: romantic versus classic art

“Only the bad artists of the nineteenth century were frightened by the invention of photography; the good ones all welcomed it and used it. Degas liked it not only because it provided an accurate record, but because the snapshot showed him a means of escape from the classical rules of design. Through it he learnt to make a composition without the use of formal symmetry.”

Mean Use Used Artist Records Century Design Photography Invention Frightened Accurate Composition Formal Nineteenth Century Symmetry Snapshots Degas

Book:The romantic rebellion: romantic versus classic art

Source: The romantic rebellion: romantic versus classic art

“Diane Arbus is one of the most mysterious, enigmatic, and frighteningly daring artists of the 20th century. Her work emerged from a deeply private place and profoundly affected all those who came into contact with it.”

Artist Century Contact Mysterious Affected Daring 20th Century Enigmatic

Author:Steven Shainberg

“'Jazz Artist of the Century' would have to be a distinctive soloist and ensemble player, a composer, an arranger, a bandleader, and a driver; would have to span all the genres and periods of jazz; would have to have run her own label; [would] possess a deep spirituality, with grace and a sense of humor; and would have to have succeeded against all odds. Who else? Mary Lou Williams.”

Running Artist Spirituality Grace Player Century Periods Jazz Labels Genre Drivers Sense Of Humor Composer Mary Odds Distinctive Ensemble Against All Odds

Author:Dave Douglas

“My teacher introduced me to this photographer Eugène Atget. He was a French photographer in the late 1800s up until 1927 in Paris. He didn't consider himself an artist, but he was probably one of the artists of the 20th century. This guy documented all of Paris during those years. It's unbelievable. The books are phenomenal. The Museum of Modern Art has all his stuff now and [American photographer] Berenice Abbott saved his work. Not very much is known about his life, but the work is unreal and it totally spoke to me. He was the only artist for a number of years that I cared about at all.”

Years Art Book Artist Guy Stuff Numbers Known Teacher Modern Century Late Photographer Saved Paris Spokes Museums 20th Century Unbelievable This Guy Unreal Phenomenal Modern Art

Author:Jeff Vespa

“Berlin seems like a place of healing to me though: you have both the Holocaust Memorial and Hiroshima Strasse side-by-side there. You have the whole last century libraried and you can see exactly what we did. Now there's lots of artists and musicians moving there because they can't afford the rent in London and New York, and they're having children and making it a gentle place. It seems to be a place of hope now.”

Children Whole Seems Lasts Moving Artist Sides Healing Century New York Musician London Gentle Holocaust Memorial Berlin Having Children Hiroshima Holocaust Memorial

Author:Robert Montgomery

“The invention of photography has dealt a mortal blow to the old modes of expression, in painting as well as in poetry, where automatic writing, which appeared at the end of the nineteenth century, is a true photography of thought. Since a blind instrument now assured artists of achieving the aim they had set themselves up to that time, they now aspired, not without recklessness, to break with the imitation of appearances.”

Writing Wells Ends Artist Break Achieve Century Painting Expression Photography Aim Instruments Blind Blow Appearance Invention Mortals Imitation Assured Nineteenth Century Recklessness

Author:Andre Breton

“Charlie Chaplin is the greatest artist of the 20th century. He takes me from laughter to tears in seconds. And he was one of the very first funny men. It's like the original violins were made in Cremona and there's never been any better since. Sometimes the best come right off the bat.”

Men Firsts Made Sometimes Artist Century Tears Laughter Originals Take Me Seconds Bats 20th Century Charlie Violin Chaplin Funny Men

Author:Emo Philips

“Look back on the utopian dreams of the previous century, or even the century before that, where people thought machines would ultimately give us a quality of life where our needs would be taken care of so we could all basically be artists together in the evening, after we had fished, hunted, raised cattle - or whatever it was Marx imagined for us.”

People Needs Giving Looks Dream Would Be Care Together Artist Quality Taken Century Machines Raised Evening Quality Of Life Cattle Utopian Hunted

Author:Astra Taylor

“I wanted to be an artist after all, and my teachers told me these were the best authors the 20th century had to offer. But these books sucked. They were so boring and sloppy and plotless. And Bob Dylan's lyrics seemed nonsensical to me - almost like he had just gotten high and written down whatever random thoughts occurred to him.”

Book Wanted Artist Teacher Written Century Offers Boring Bob 20th Century Dylan Sloppy Nonsensical So Boring Random Thoughts

Author:Simon Rich

“In the 20th century, artists did a great disservice to fairies. They painted fairies in a way that was shallow and trite. So when people see my stuff, they suddenly realize the depth of fairies.”

People Way Artist Stuff Realizing Century Depth Fairy Shallow 20th Century Disservice

Author:Brian Froud

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