“Sitting in the Oval Office, beneath a painting of George Washington, with a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. over his right shoulder and a bust of Abraham Lincoln over his left shoulder, Obama told 'National Journal' that the country's economic woes are deep and endemic.” CountryLeftEconomicPaintingKingsOfficeSittingShouldersJournalWoeLutherAbrahamOval Author:Ron Fournier
“I barely knew I wanted to be an artist. I liked my art classes and painting was fun, I guess, but I didn't realize that seeing the country was going to inspire me to further explore that... but that's what it did.” ArtCountryWantedArtistFunRealizingClassSeeingInspirePaintingArt Class Author:Edward Ruscha
“I have a studio in the country - in the woods - but my paintings look more real to me than what is outdoors. You walk outside; the rocks are inert; even the clouds are inert. It makes me feel a little better. But I do have a faith that it is possible to make a living thing, not a diagram of what I have been thinking: to posit with paint something living, something that changes each day.” ThinkingFeelsLooksLittlesHas BeensRealCountryNatureWalksRocksPaintingPaintCloudsStudiosWoodsEach DayLiving ThingsDiagrams Book:Philip Guston: Collected Writings, Lectures, and Conversations Source: Philip Guston: Collected Writings, Lectures, and Conversations
“In Germany, we often hear the absurd complaint that museums don't have the money to buy paintings. Of course, I'm not talking about me and my paintings. There are, after all, more popular painters in this country.” CountryCoursesTalkingPaintingAbsurdPainterGermanyMuseumsComplaintsNot TalkingTalking About Me Author:Georg Baselitz
“We're all so clogged with dead ideas passed from generation to generation that even the best of us don't know the way out We invented the Revolution but we don't know how to run it Look everyone wants to keep something from the past a souvenir of the old regime This man decides to keep a painting This one keeps his mistress He [ pointing ] keeps his garden He [ pointing ] keeps his estate He keeps his country house He keeps his factories This man couldn't part with his shipyards This one kept his army and that one keeps his king” KnowsMenWayWantLooksIdeasCountryRunningPastHouseKnow HowGenerationsPaintingRevolutionKingsGardenArmyFactoriesRegimesEstatesPointingMistressSouvenirsCountry Houses Author:Peter Weiss
“The idea of an isolated American painting , so popular in this country during the thirties, seems absurd to me, just as the idea of a purely American mathematics or physics would seem absurd... And in another sense, the problem doesn't exist at all; or, if it did, would solve itself: An American is an American and his painting would naturally be qualified by the fact, whether he wills or not. But the basic problems of contemporary painting are independent of any one country.” IfsIdeasCountryFactsProblemSeemsPaintingMathematicsIndependentSolvePhysicsContemporaryAbsurdIsolatedQualified Book:Jackson Pollock, 1912-1956 Source: Jackson Pollock, 1912-1956
“I don't approve of what Wall Street and the wealthy have done to this country, but they are the very ones buying my paintings.” CountryDoneStreetsPaintingWallBuyingWealthyCollectors Author:Scott Kahn
“When you see Hitler burning paintings by Salvador Dali and Picasso he's telling you that this time period and these men and this culture didn't exist, and I've seen that happen in other countries, Sudan for instance, it's not enough to kill them you have to destroy all of their markings that they left that was their history.” MenCountryEnoughHappensCultureLeftPaintingPeriodsInstanceBurningOther CountriesSudanTime Periods Author:George Clooney
“My interest in society - at times so pronounced that the word snob comes a little to mind - derives from the fact that I like an immense number of things which society, money, and position bring in their train: painting, tapestries, rare books, smart dresses, dances, gardens, country houses, correct cuisine, and pretty women.” MindLittlesBookCountryFactsHouseInterestNumbersPositionPaintingSmartGardenDressesTrainImmenseCuisineSnobTapestryPretty WomanCountry Houses Author:Frank Crowninshield
“Sculpture and painting are very justly called liberal arts; a lively and strong imagination, together with a just observation, being absolutely necessary to excel in either; which, in my opinion, is by no means the case of music, though called a liberal art, and now in Italy placed even above the other two--a proof of the decline of that country.” MeanArtTwoCountryTogetherArtistStrongImaginationMusicOpinionCasesPaintingMusicianProofObservationDeclineSculptureLivelyLiberal Arts Author:Lord Chesterfield
“All my life I have painted pictures so that certain people would drop dead when they looked at them, but I have not succeeded yet. The worst painting cant hurt you, but a bad driver can kill you, a bad judge can send you to the chair, a bad politician can ruin an entire country, That is why even a bad painting is sacred.” PeopleCountryCertainHurtWorstPaintingJudgingPoliticianSacredRuinsChairsDriversCant Author:Man Ray