“What constitutes American painting?... things may be in America, but it's what is in the artist that counts. What do we call 'American' outside of painting? Inventiveness, restlessness, speed, change.” MayAmericaArtistPaintingSpeedPatriotismRestlessnessInventiveness Author:Arthur Dove
“But the mark of American merit in painting, in sculpture, in poetry, in fiction, in eloquence, seems to be a certain grace withoutgrandeur, and itself not new but derivative; a vase of fair outline, but empty,--which whoso sees, may fill with what wit and character is in him, but which does not, like the charged cloud, overflow with terrible beauty, and emit lightnings on all beholders.” MayDoeCharacterSeemsAmericaCertainFictionUnited StatesGracePaintingTerribleFairsEmptyMarkCloudsWitMeritLightningSculptureEloquenceOutlinesOverflowDerivativesBeholderVases Book:Essays and Lectures Source: Essays and Lectures
“Now, at a moment when photography is so pervasive that it's been forced to grapple with its own identity and look inward, it feels like a natural moment for painting to look out, to reclaim that directive of picturing America.” FeelsLooksMomentsAmericaNaturalIdentityPaintingPhotographyInward Author:Cynthia Daignault
“Artworks, whether fiction, music, or painting, because they have the power and possibility to become truth, when repeated enough or told enough are somehow truth about what America is, whether they were or not.” EnoughAmericaFictionPossibilityPaintingArtwork Author:Cynthia Daignault
“I should also mention that the Neue Galerie is piping music into the galleries where "Klee and America" is hanging, a practice for which vulgar is not even close to the word. Yes, I like Schumann's Carnaval, but I'm damned if I know why anybody thinks the paintings of Paul Klee profit from being viewed with Carnaval playing in the background.” IfsThinkingKnowsShouldAmericaPracticePaintingProfitBackgroundsVulgarGallerySchumann Author:Terry Teachout