“Here, reality is not subordinated to painting, indeed painting seems the handmaid of reality, though we feel it tending towards a procedure which, while not at the mercy of appearances, is not yet in conflict with them.” FeelsRealitySeemsPaintingConflictCriticismMercyAppearanceProceduresHandmaids Author:Andre Malraux
“The paradox in the evolution of French painting from Courbet to Cezanne is how it was brought to the verge of abstraction in and by its very effort to transcribe visual appearance with ever greater fidelity.” EffortGreaterPaintingEvolutionAppearanceVisualsParadoxAbstractionFidelityVergeCezanne Author:Clement Greenberg
“Let the painter composing narrative pictures take pleasure in wealth and variety, and avoid repeating any part that occurs in it, so that the uniqueness and abundance attract people to it and delight the eye of the observer. I say that a narrative painting requires (depending on the scene), wherever the eye falls, a mixture of men of diverse appearances, of diverse ages and dress, combined together with women, children, dogs, horses, buildings, fields, and hills.” PeopleMenChildrenEyeAgeTogetherFallWealthPleasureDogFieldsBuildingPaintingSceneHorseDressesDelightAppearancePainterVarietyHillsNarrativeAbundanceDiverseUniquenessObserversMixturesComposing Author:Leonardo da Vinci
“Through the 13th century, paintings of Angels exhibit a predominantly masculine appearance. Over the next 300 years, their images become more delicate, gentle, and feminine, until Angels are shown as androgynous or even distinctly female.” YearsNextCenturyPaintingAngelFemaleAppearanceGentleFeminineDelicateMasculineExhibitsAndrogynous Author:David Connolly
“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.” WritingWellsEndsArtistBreakAchieveCenturyPaintingExpressionPhotographyAimInstrumentsBlindBlowAppearanceInventionMortalsImitationAssuredNineteenth CenturyRecklessness Author:Andre Breton