Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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Art
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“Pure painting or the art of drawing whose point of departure is based on purely formal criteria is,in my opinion, passé. I do not reject it if other artists make attempts,but as far as I am concerned,this is what I believe. if I do not place a text next to my drawings,I consider the work on such programmes to be futile.”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) first seen 1993 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: P. 208 (1993)
“All art is probably erotic in its ultimate character, but painting more than anything else is a purely nervous erotic activity.”
Patrick Swift (1927–1983) first seen 1956 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Some Notes on Caravaggio" (Nimbus 1956).
“Art, if it is successful in the task of questioning reality, if it is good painting and not merely a performance of dexterity, will be an affirmation of God.”
Patrick Swift (1927–1983) first seen 1955 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Italian Report (1955).
“The main qualifications to the lesser position of painting is that advances in art are certainly not always formal ones.”
Donald Judd (1928–1994) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Donald Judd (1963), quoted in: Joseph Kosuth, (1969), "Art after Philosophy
“The pleasure that painting as a dumb art give us, is like what we have from music; its beautiful forms, colours and harmony are to the eye what sounds and the harmony...are to the ear.”
Jonathan Richardson (1667–1745) said by 1745 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Painting responded to the plague-darkened vision of the human condition provoked by repeated exposure to sudden, inexplicable death. Tuscan painters reacted against Giotto's serenity, preferring sterner, hieratic portrayals of religious scenes and figures. The "Dance of Death" became a common theme for art; and several other macabre motifs entered the European repertory.”
William H. McNeill (1917–2016) first seen 1200 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ch.4 "The Impact of the Mongol Empire on Shifting Disease Balances, 1200-1500".
“The house was filled with the piano and violin. I turned towards the art of painting.”
Jean Metzinger (1883–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Modern art has led me to the comprehension and appreciation of Indian painting and sculpture. It seems paradoxical but I know for certain that had we not come away to Europe, I should perhaps never have realised that a fresco from Ajanta or a small piece of sculpture in the Musee Guimet is worth more than a whole Renaissance.'”
Amrita Sher-Gil (1913–1941) first seen 1934 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In 1934 on her new art form
“advice to a young painter, (1896); as quoted in Painting Outside the lines, Patterns of Creativity in Modern Art, ed. David W. Galenson, Harvard University Press, 30 Jun 2009, pp. 84-85, note 40.”
Camille Pissarro (1830–1903) said by 1903 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The aim of art is to create space - space that is not compromised by decoration or illustration, space within which the subjects of painting can live.”
Frank Stella (1936–2024) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As cited in Alan D. Bryce Art Smart: Art Smart: The Intelligent Guide to Investing in the Canadian Art Market (2007), p. 55
“«There are many ways to practice and make art. There are also various ways to express, such as comedy, sculpture, music, painting etc. Dimensions can be immense even in such small spaces as the head of a pin».”
Eugenio Cruz Vargas (1923–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There may be regular Methods also invented for teaching the Doctrine of Light and Shadow; and other Particulars relating to the Practical Part of Painting, may be improved and digested into proper Methods... But I only hint at these... recommending them to the Masters of the Art to reflect and improve upon.”
Brook Taylor (1685–1732) said by 1732 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I outline in simple terms... our current understanding of the cognitive psychological and neurobiological basis of perception, memory, emotion, empathy, and creativity. ...the principles of the viewer's response to art are applicable to all periods of painting.”
Eric Kandel (born 1929) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The hardest part of doing anything creatively is just getting up and doing. Once I get out of bed and get into my art room, I start painting. I'm there. And I'm doing it.”
Frances Bean Cobain (born 1992) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“These things [cutting, cropping and shaping] always happen in strange ways. You can say after the fact what you're doing, but, believe me, you can't project it ahead. It has to be worked through before you can recognize what it was that you were looking for. It's a search; it's not like getting a brainstorm.. .It's work, yes; it comes out of the practice of painting, the practice of your art.”
Kenneth Noland (1924–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Artists are mechanics who work with their hands, making things. Artists are involved with the means of creativity, the nature of skills, the revelation of making. Art comes from the work, I see a painting as an expressive entity. There's no picture that I know of where the subject carries as much expressive possibility as the actual execution of the picture.”
Kenneth Noland (1924–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How should one approach the person of van Gogh in order to be able to build a statue of him? How can one place him outside of himself, separate him from the tragic character of his life? How can one build a statue in the open air which simultaneously evokes the rare and the new person who was van Gogh, as also the enormity of the new aspect of the current and future art of painting?”
Ossip Zadkine (1888–1967) first seen 1956 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Le Maillet et le Ciseau', (early 1956); as quoted in Zadkine and Van Gogh, ed. Garance Schabert and Ron Dirven (transl. Anne Porcelijn), Vincent van Goghhuis, Zundert & Scriptum Art, Schiedam 2008, p.29
“Each line is now the actual experience with its own innate history. It does not illustrate — it is the sensation of its own realization. [a written art note by Twombly on a painting he created in 1957].”
Cy Twombly (1928–2011) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote of Twombly in 'Writings', Flash Art International, Laura Cherubini, October 2008 (translation from Italian: Beatrice Barbareschi)
“I don't really care what people think of me. Whatever anyone may say, I've helped the whole art world, just as Picasso and Dalí have. I've made people aware of painting, which makes them buy more, just like they go buy more records and books once they're exposed.”
Walter Keane (1915–2000) said by 2000 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“From the moment painting ceased to be religious it started to decay, so that now it has reached a childishness that borders on idiocy. People who admire it are even greater idiots than those who paint. Art loses all reason for being if it's not animated by a great feeling.”
Aldo Palazzeschi (1885–1974) said by 1974 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You tell the big lie by carefully selecting only the small, isolated truths, linking them in such a way that that advance the bigger lie by painting a picture inside the viewer's head. The Ascended High Master of this Dark Art is Noam Chomsky.”
Bill Whittle (born 1959) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: MAGIC (18 May 2003)
“My deepest intention is that some day a sufferer, no matter how afflicted, will be able to look at a painting, at a photograph, and be instantly healed. That is my ultimate hope. Not to be realized in this life, maybe, but that is what I believe art can do.”
John Diamond (doctor) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I knew nothing when I first met him. He taught me to see things through his eyes. Dalí was my teacher. He let me use his brushes, his paint and his canvas, so that I could play around while he was painting for hours and hours in the same studio. Surrealism was a good school for me. Listening to Dalí talk was better than going to any art school.”
Amanda Lear (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“..and then it remains you to re-create your study, the fragment, into a painting. For remember; these are two [different] things: Nature is the material from which we must take. But don't be fooled by the modern theories, that imitating, copying nature would be 'everything'. The goal, the Art's aim is .... to move.. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)”
Willem Roelofs (1822–1897) first seen 1822 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote of Roelofs, in a letter to his pupil , 8 June 1886; as cited in Willem Roelofs (1822—1922), by Mr. H. F. W. Jeltes, in Maandschrift Elsevierweekblad..., Jan. 1922, p. 222
“I was always discouraged,” she says. “Even when I had a fellowship for painting, some of my teachers were very hostile. ‘You’re taking this too seriously. You’re only a girl. Don’t set your heart on art.’ My boyfriends in college stole my brushes and my books, like, ‘We need this more than you do.'”
Carolee Schneemann (1939–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There were limits to what art—composed of such genres as portraiture, landscape, still life, and historical painting (the latter of which, in royal academies, enjoyed the highest esteem)—could do to show movement.”
Arthur Danto (1924–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is not strange that the engineer fails to produce a unique solution, that his product is seen to be the result of 'art' more than science. ...The product becomes a matter of opinion... and joins the ranks of many other products such as literature, painting and sculpture, and... clothing. It has, in fact, its own history of Fashion.”
Eric Laithwaite (1921–1997) said by 1997 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Imagine every piece you are painting could be your last piece, or maybe you will not be able to finish it. All those emotions and passion blended into me doing my best art at that time,”
Hani Abbas first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview (2022)
“The festival is not about film screening alone. There are also numerous events around the festival and ZIFF gives exposure, not only to films and filmmakers, but it also gives that exposure to different forms of art: music, dance, painting, photography.”
Clementine Dusabejambo (born 1987) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Clementine Dusabejambo said that, showing my short film and took away from the festival (The New Times, Thursday, July 21, 2016)
“our society is not monochromatic. There is nothing in this society, there is no book on any bestseller list, there is no painting in the museum of modern art, there is no statuary in any museum in this country created by a U.S. citizen that was not informed by the multicultural nature of this society.”
Jewelle Gomez (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“(What branch of art is the closest to Your heart?) Painting. Even though I’ve tried my hand at drawing and ceramic sculpture in different moments, the vast majority of my works are oil paintings.”
Alfredo Arreguín (1935–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I watched the episode where Jennifer Beals said my name and showed my painting, I squealed a little. I’m happy to see some of my goals begin to come to fruition. There is so much more that I can do with art. I’m just getting started.”
Dawn Okoro (born 1980) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Earl Hopkins, From small galleries to primetime TV, Dawn Okoro is shining under international spotlight, American-Statesman, 28 May 2022.
“We have been through a difficult journey of evacuation. We gave our students basic art supplies and they started painting and drawing just as a way of going through therapy here,”
Shabana Basij-Rasikh (born 1990) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Basij-Rasikh on Afghan girls’ journey, finding welcoming learning place inRwanda The New Times (June 21, 2022)
“How is it that painting the only art form that any ignorant person allows himself to judge?”
Charles Picart Le Doux (1881–1959) said by 1959 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yes, let Art go, if it must be That with it men must starve — If Music, Painting, Poetry Spring from the wasted hearth.Nay, brothers, sing us battle songs With clear and ringing rhyme; Nay, show the world its hateful wrongs, And bring the better time!”
Francis Adams (writer) first seen 1909 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Bernard O'Dowd, Poetry Militant: An Australian Plea for the Poetry of Purpose (Melbourne: T. C. Lothian, 1909)
“Painting is a very slow art. It doesn't travel with the speed of a light. That's why dead painters shine so bright”
Marlene Dumas (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I want to be a living work of art," declared the Marchesa Casati. And she succeeded. Her body became a statue. Her face a painting. Her conversation a performance. She had not clothes but costumes. (p. 32)”
Giuseppe Scaraffia (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If conversation be an art, like painting, sculpture, and literature, it owes its most power charm to nature; and the least shade of formality or artifice destroys the effect of the best collection of words.”
Henry Theodore Tuckerman (1813–1871) said by 1871 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of the ideas about art that was gaining momentum when I was student, which I heard but didn’t take seriously, was that psychology has no place in painting. And so, as a 19-year-old, I responded by putting it back there, boldly and for no good fucking reason.”
Lisa Yuskavage (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The rose colours of madder have justly been considered as supplying a desideratum, and as the most valuable acquisition of the palette in modern times, since perfectly permanent transparent reds and rose-colours were previously unknown to the art of painting.”
George Field (1777–1854) said by 1854 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The gorge of the Waghura river, in the Sahyadri Hills is an enchanted place. Here, two streams met. One, of the sophisticated development of the art of painting even at this early date in India, and the other, filled with the compassionate philosophy of the Buddha.”
Benoy K. Behl (born 1956) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I moved from painting into performance because I felt that putting something in a gallery didn’t have any effect. Making performance art was the same. It became self-indulgent. With design, I felt I could reach a wider audience and have real impact, whether good or bad.”
Peet Pienaar (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Printmaking has always been an important part of my art. Sculpture, painting and printmaking all inform one another. If one thinks about Gerhard Richter, and his great wadges of paint, there is a sculptural quality. When one thinks about the action of an angle grinder on a sheet of masonite, print and sculpture are similar physical actions. The processes blur.”
Beezy Bailey (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think Joseph Beuys is the most missunderstood artist of the 20th century. He opened a door into art for any idiot and now they traipse around believing that they have to bestow their favour on this rubbish, although it has absolutely nothing to say.”
Ralf Metzenmacher (1964–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am a sensitive artist. Nobody understands me because I am so deep. In my work, I make allusions to books that nobody else has read, music that nobody else has heard, and art that nobody else has seen. I can't help it, because I am so much more intelligent and well-rounded than everyone who surrounds me.”
John S. Hall (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“..art lies in the fine choice. The artist does not teach us to see facts: he teaches us to feel harmonies.”
Arthur Wesley Dow (1857–1922) first seen 1915 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Talks on the Appreciation of Art", The Delinator (Jan 1915)
“I am not a 'book of the month' artist, and I do not paint pretty pictures; but when I am no longer here my name will register forever in the history of American art.”
Marsden Hartley (1877–1943) said by 1943 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The artist make things move, and is moved. He is policeman, motor car, everything at once. He who makes things move also creates rest. That which aesthetically is brought to rest is art.”
Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) first seen 1920 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In 'The Grand Boulevards' (of Paris), Piet Mondriaan, in 'De Groene Amsterdammer', 27 March 1920 pp. 4-5
“The greatest artist is he who is greatest in the highest reaches of his art, even although he may lack the qualities necessary for the adequate execution of some minor details. It is not by his faults, but by his excellences, that we measure a great man. The strength of a beam is measured by its weakest part, of a man by his strongest..”
George Henry Lewes (1817–1878) first seen 1875 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Actors and the Art of Acting (Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1875) p. 13
“The power of the average pop artist and her products lies in the pornography that is her 'art,' in her hackneyed political posturing, and in the fantastic technology that is Auto-Tune (without which all the sound you'd hear these 'singers' emit would be a bedroom whisper).”
Ilana Mercer first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harvey Sweinstein And Hollywood's Hos," The Daily Caller, October 20, 2017.