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Art

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“Only then would the insistence on participation of the action art of FLUXUS and Happening be fulfilled; only then would democracy be fully realized. Only a conception of art revolutionized to this degree can turn into a politically productive force, coursing through each person, and shaping history.”
Joseph Beuys (1921–1986) said by 1986 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think art is the only political power, the only revolutionary power, the only evolutionary power, the only power to free humankind form all repression. I say not that art has already realized this, on the contrary, and because it has not, it has to be developed as a weapon, at first there are radical levels, then you can speak about special details.”
Joseph Beuys (1921–1986) first seen 1978 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in: Robert C. Morgan (1978). The Role of Documentation in Conceptual Art: : An Aesthetic Inquiry. p. 176.
“I don't know what they call mysticism, it is in truth perhaps the interest of the spirit; that the work expresses the spirit, and not the formal aspect. While in the United States a lot of art production runs along the line of formalist art; what one could call the post-modernism, a kind of formalist intention like Don Judd, Carl Andre, Robert Morris, and these.”
Joseph Beuys (1921–1986) first seen 1978 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 243; Also cited in: Louwrien Wijers (1996). Writing as Sculpture: 1978 - 1987. p. 38
“..art is made by man. His own figure is the center of all art.. .Therefore one must begin with the man himself.”
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880–1938) first seen 1910 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: c. 1910; as quoted in: Der Blick auf Fränzi und Marcella: Zwei Modelle der Brücke-Künstler Heckel, Kirchner und Pechstein, Norbert Nobis; Sprengel Museum Hannover und Stiftung Moritzburg, 2011, p 17
“To select, combine and concentrate that which is beautiful in nature and admirable in art is as much the business of the landscape painter in his line as in the other departments of art.”
J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851) first seen 1810 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote of Turner, c. 1810; as quoted in: Dennis Hugh Halloran (1970) The Classical Landscape Paintings of J.M.W. Turner. p. 75
“It's art, just look at it as art. Yeah, it's disgusting, but that's never gonna happen. Go to the Vatican and look at some of the artwork there. Woah! That's real, representing something that could happen. Monsters are never gonna come ripping out of your body.”
George Fisher (musician) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“1978. If thou art wise, thou knowest thy own Ignorance; and thou art ignorant if thou knowest not thy self.”
Thomas Fuller (writer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“2597. Keep thy Judgment to thyself. Why should others know what thou art? or paraphrase upon thy Opinion? Herein thou hast the Advantage of changing thy Mind when thou art mistaken, and yet continue ( for ought others know ) in the same Mind.”
Thomas Fuller (writer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All art is a form of artifice.For in art there can be no prejudices.”
Arthur Symons (1865–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Preface to Silhouettes kindle ebook 2012 ASIN B0082UH208.
“Art is that imaginative expression of human energy, which, through technical concretion of feeling and perception, tends to reconcile the individual with the universal, by exciting in him impersonal emotion. And the greatest Art is that which excites the greatest impersonal emotion in an hypothecated perfect human being.”
John Galsworthy (1867–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Gertrude Stein, all courage and will, is a soldier of minimalism. Her work, unlike the resonating silences in the art of Samuel Beckett, embodies in its loquacity and verbosity the curious paradox of the minimalist form. This art of the nuance in repetition and placement she shares with the orchestral compositions of Philip Glass.”
Elizabeth Hardwick (1916–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art is for all — and the greatest art proves it.”
William Soutar (1898–1943) first seen 1932 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Diary, 29 August 1932.
“I am still a victim of chess. It has all the beauty of art - and much more. It cannot be commercialized. Chess is much purer than art in its social position.”
Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote from 'Time Magazine', 10 March 1952; as quoted on Wikipedia: Marcel Duchamp
“..we must remember that this 'art coefficient' is a personal expression of art 'à l'état brute', that is, still in a raw state, which must be 'refined' as pure sugar from molasses, by the spectator; the digit of this coefficient has no bearing whatsoever on his verdict.. ..the role of the spectator is to determine the weight of the work on the aesthetic scale.”
Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“..(Then come the lovers of art / and contemplate the bleeding work from outside. / Then come the photographers. / "New art," it says in the newspaper the following day. / The learned journals / give it a name that ends in "ism").”
Paul Klee (1879–1940) first seen 1905 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote (1905), # 690, in The Diaries of Paul Klee, translation: Pierre B. Schneider, R. Y. Zachary and Max Knight; publisher, University of California Press, 1964
“The beautiful, which is perhaps inseparable from art, is not after all tied to the subject, but to the pictorial representation. In this way and in no other does art overcome the ugly without avoiding it.”
Paul Klee (1879–1940) first seen 1898 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Diary entry (December 1905), # 733, in The Diaries of Paul Klee, 1898-1918; University of California Press, 1968
“[commenting French Cubist art] ..Trees are violated, humans become incapable of life; there is a coercion that leads to the un-recognazibility of the object, to a picture-puzzle. For here what counts is not a profane law, but a law of art.”
Paul Klee (1879–1940) first seen 1912 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote (April 1912); as cited in Kandinsky and Klee in Tunisia, Roger Benjamin & Cristina Ashjian; Univ of California Press, 2015, p. 106
“The more horrible this world (as today, for instance), the more abstract our art, whereas a happy world brings forth an art of the here and now.”
Paul Klee (1879–1940) first seen 1915 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Diary entry (1915), # 951 , in The Diaries of Paul Klee, translation: Pierre B. Schneider, R. Y. Zachary and Max Knight; publisher, University of California Press, 1964
“It didn’t pay very much, but it enabled me to get other jobs doing art criticism, which I didn’t want to do very much, but as so often when you exhibit reluctance to do something, people think you must be very good at it. If I had set out to be an art critic, I might never have succeeded.”
John Ashbery (1927–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is movement and movement. There are movements of small tension and movements of great tension and there is also a movement which our eyes cannot catch although it can be felt. In art this state is called dynamic movement. This special movement was discovered by the futurists as a new and hitherto unknown phenomenon in art, a phenomenon which some Futurists were delighted to reflect.”
Kazimir Malevich (1879–1935) first seen 1915 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: c. 1915, in: 'Cubofuturism', Malevich, in his Essays on Art, op. cit., vol 2; as quoted in Futurism, ed. By Didier Ottinger; Centre Pompidou / 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2008, p. 59
“..the art of futurism.. ..achieved great momentum in the first quarter of the Twentieth Century and remains a basic stimulus in the following forms of new art: Suprematism, Simultaneism, Purism, Odorism, Pankinetism, Tactilism, Haptism, Expressionism, and Légerísm [referring to Fernand Léger in the last ...ism, mentioned]”
Kazimir Malevich (1879–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In: 'Cubofuturism', Malevich, in Essays on Art, op. cit., vol 2; as quoted in Futurism, ed. By Didier Ottinger; Centre Pompidou / 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2008, p. 59
“The square is not a subconscious form. It is the creation of intuitive reason. The face of the new art. The square is a living, regal infant. The first step of pure creation in art.”
Kazimir Malevich (1879–1935) first seen 1916 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism: The New Realism in Painting', Kazimir Malevich, November 1916
“An art of expression should begin with childhood, and the lucid use of one's mother tongue should be typical of that art. The sense of reality should be strengthened from the beginning, yet by no means at the cost of those lofty illusions we call patriotism, veneration, love.”
Louis Sullivan (1856–1924) said by 1924 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The true architectural art, that art toward which I would lead you, rests, not upon scholarship but upon human powers; and, therefore, it is to be tested, not by the fruits of scholarship, but by the touch-stone of humanity.”
Louis Sullivan (1856–1924) said by 1924 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The present painter is concerned not with his own feelings or with the mystery of his own personality but with the penetration into the world mystery. His imagination is therefore attempting to dig into metaphysical secrets. To that extend his art is concerned with the sublime. It is a religious art which through symbols will catch the basic truth of life which is its sense of tragedy.”
Barnett Newman (1905–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Great art is never extreme. Criticism moves in a false direction, as does art, when it aspires to be a social science.. .In this world modern artists form a kind of spiritual underground.”
Robert Motherwell (1915–1991) first seen 1944 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Motherwell's writing in 1944; as cited in 'Robert Motherwell, American Painter and Printmaker', on 'Artstory'
“Art never seems to make me peaceful or pure. I always seem to be wrapped in the melodrama of vulgarity. I do not think.. ..of art as a situation of comfort.”
Willem de Kooning (1904–1997) first seen 1946 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Beyond the Aesthetic, Robert Motherwell, Design 47, April 1946, as quoted in Abstract Expressionist Painting in America, W.C, Seitz, Cambridge Massachusetts, 1983, p. 101.
“It’s not a coincidence that governments use art on coins and notes. They do this to help us believe in money. Without art, it’s hard for us to believe in anything.”
Damien Hirst (born 1965) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Shaw, Anny, NFT breakthrough: Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin creates 99% energy efficient blockchain—and Damien Hirst is its first artist, The Art Newspaper, 30 March 2021
“When it comes to words I have a uniqueness that I find almost impossible in art – and it's my words that actually make my art quite unique.”
Tracey Emin (born 1963) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Artist Emin leaves us baffled" BBC, (2001-12-06)
“God wants us to worship Him. He doesn't need us, for He couldn't be a self-sufficient God and need anything or anybody, but He wants us. When Adam sinned it was not he who cried, 'God, where art Thou?' It was God who cried, 'Adam, where art thou?'”
Aiden Wilson Tozer (1897–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Worship: The Missing Jewel as quoted in Vernon K. McLellan (2000), Twentieth century thoughts that shaped the church p. 265.
“On Martin Scorsese: Martin has brought so much to the art form of film, and he is not the type of person who would be upset by not receiving an Oscar, although it is a practical joke that he has not won an Academy Award after all these years. Whatever opinions critics will have of The Aviator, I really think that this is a great piece of art: once again, he has made a great classic film.”
Leonardo DiCaprio (born 1974) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My art in the last period has all been in small format, but my paintings have become even deeper and more spiritual, speaking purely through colour.. .And now I leave these small – but to me – important works to the future and to the people who love art.”
Alexej von Jawlensky (1864–1941) first seen 1937 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: from: 'Lebenserinnerungen', 1938 - after 1937 Jawlensky couldn't paint any longer because of severe arthritis
“As with other modern artists, his readings provided not an organized outlook but a kind of metaphysical hum that surrounded his mental operations. His thinking was truly systematic only when it dealt with achieving the reality of the art object as a "creation out of nothing," which was a common theme in New York art after the last war and the break with the European past.”
Harold Rosenberg (1906–1978) said by 1978 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The current demoralization of the art world is attributable at least in part to museum interference, ideological and practical, with ongoing creation in art.”
Harold Rosenberg (1906–1978) said by 1978 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Not only were the minds of artists formed by the university; in the same mold were formed those of the art historians, the critics, the curators, and the collectors by whom their work was evaluated. With the rise of Conceptual art, the classroom announced its final triumph over the studio.”
Harold Rosenberg (1906–1978) said by 1978 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art comes instinctively to us, but it is so uncertain. I have in front of me photographs of all Picasso’s best works. The mere I admire them the further I feel myself removed from all art, it seems so easy, so limited! We are part of the world creation, and we ourselves create nothing.”
Arshile Gorky (1904–1948) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 168: in a letter to his future wife Agnes Magruder (Mougouch), 7 Mai 1941
“..poor art for poor people [his critic on social realism art in America]”
Arshile Gorky (1904–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Movement is the translation of life, and if art depicts life, movement should come into art, since we are only aware of living because it moves.”
Arshile Gorky (1904–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The art of living is the art of knowing how to believe lies. The fearful thing about it is that, not knowing what truth may be, we can still recognize lies.”
Cesare Pavese (1908–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is an outrage towards the masses.. ..It's wanting to treat them as though they're incapable of raising themselves up to this new realism [promoted by Léger and Le Corbusier ] which is that of their area, which they've made with their hands.. .To want to say to these men 'the modern is not for you it's an art for the rich bourgeoisie..' [attack on the notion of Social Realism art]”
Fernand Léger (1881–1955) first seen 1949 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote, c. 1949, in: Fernand Léger - The Later Years, catalogue ed. Nicolas Serota, published by the Trustees of the Whitechapel Art gallery, London, Prestel Verlag, 1988, p. 58
“It’s very important to be able to accept things, you know. Gracious acceptance is an art – an art which most of never bother to cultivate. We think that we have to learn how to give, but we forget about accepting things, which can be much harder than giving.”
Alexander McCall Smith (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I believe that the justification of art is the internal combustion it ignites in the hearts of men and not its shallow, externalized, public manifestations. The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenalin but is, rather, the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity.”
Glenn Gould (1932–1982) first seen 1962 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Attributed to Glenn Gould (1962) in Payzant (Glenn Gould: Music and Mind), p. 64
“Poetry can be criticized only through poetry. A critique which itself is not a work of art, either in content as representation of the necessary impression in the process of creation, or through its beautiful form and in its liberal tone in the spirit of the old Roman satire, has no right of citizenship in the realm of art.”
Friedrich Schlegel (1772–1829) first seen 1797 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Selected Aphorisms from the Lyceum (1797)”, Dialogue on Poetry and Literary Aphorisms, Ernst Behler and Roman Struc, trans. (Pennsylvania University Press:1968) #117
“The essence of art can never change. I'm convinced you can't talk about art. At best, you will have a translation, a poetic paraphrase, & as for that I'll leave that to the poets.”
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (1884–1976) first seen 1914 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In: New Program - Kunst & Kunstler, Berlin 1914
“Everything influences you in the way that you present your art to other people and the way that you create your art for yourself. Life is pretty much the influence, so growing up in Orem, Utah, and growing up in the church is obviously a huge factor in it for me. But there's a few others in my band that weren't raised in the church. So it's a combination of a lot of things.”
Bert McCracken (born 1982) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Brian Orloff (July 24, 2003) "Get Warped - AFI", St. Petersburg Times, p. 22W.
“The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) said by 1826 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm not "filled with my art". I ain't got no art. I've got only a kind of craftsman's skill, and make stories as I make biscuits or embroider underwear or wrap up packages.”
Rose Wilder Lane (1886–1968) first seen 1925 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Guy Moyston (June 25, 1925).
“the greatest eye-wizard of the world!” - Stella Kramrisch - Curator of Indian Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA, c1980”
Mani Madhava Chakyar (1899–1990) said by 1990 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For art to be art it has to cure.”
Alejandro Jodorowsky (born 1929) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In 1968 the end of art was announced, but this was for political reasons and for the wrong reasons. At that time it was believed that as long as there were only formal relationships, one did not have to deal with a luxury such as art.”
Anselm Kiefer (born 1945) first seen 1986 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (1986) n.p.