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Art

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“People do not understand how fast a culture can disappear without art especially a country whose culture is art in itself.”
Amata Giramata (born 1996) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Music is just like art. And both talents are innate. You must be artistically inclined to be creative. So, it’s the art in me that has found expressions through music.”
Jennifer Eliogu (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art appears to stand outside this realm of rigid instrumentality, bureaucratized life, and its complementary mass culture. That it can do so is due to art’s peculiar economy, based on the manufacture of unique or rare artefacts, and its spurning of mechanical reproduction.”
Julian Stallabrass (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Governments, as we have seen, look to art as a social salve, and hope that socially interactive art will act as bandaging for the grave wounds continually prised open by capital.”
Julian Stallabrass (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was playing Liszt's Eroica etudes when I was 11 . . . though I can't play it now." (Jamal reflects on this with a laugh.) "It all made me eventually settle on calling this great music 'American classical music' instead of jazz. It's the only art form that developed in the United States except for American Indian art. It managed to survive because it's so strong and so natural and so pure.”
Ahmad Jamal (1930–2023) first seen 1996 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interviewed by John Fordham in "Transatlantic fusion" The Guardian (October 18, 1996), p. 42
“No art is sunk in the self, but rather, in art the self becomes self-forgetful in order to meet the demands of the thing seen and the thing being made.”
Flannery O'Connor (1925–1964) said by 1964 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There may never be anything new to say, but there is always a new way to say it, and since, in art, the way of saying a thing becomes a part of what is said, every work of art is unique and requires fresh attention.”
Flannery O'Connor (1925–1964) said by 1964 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If education should be salvaged in this country we cannot leave it to the government alone. There has to be an inclusion of the private sector. The central and important role the University of Lagos plays in the art-charged city of Lagos makes it possible to attract private/public partnership in art training.”
Peju Layiwola (born 1967) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“(What Art means to You?) Art is life. it is a vessel that allows me to express my perception of the world, my sense of beauty and my social concerns–which, I believe, are shared by many other persons around the world.”
Alfredo Arreguín (1935–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art was in my blood and my soul, and my grandfather and whole family were encouraging influences. The more I learned, the more I wanted to study and produce art. Picasso was one of my favorite studies.”
Daphne Odjig (1919–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I respect all definitions of art, but I cherish most the definition which states that art is an expression of the desire to communicate on the most meaningful level.”
Chava Rosenfarb (1923–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“New York is such an instrumental city for art, and it’s extraordinary the impact that America’s had in art history, especially in the 20th century.”
Katy Hessel (born 1994) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[About the Guerilla Girls] Essentially, what they unveiled was the fact that museums are celebrating the history of patriarchy, as opposed to the history of art. And if we're not seeing art by a wide range of people and subjects of a wide range of people, then we’re not seeing society as a whole.”
Katy Hessel (born 1994) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Instagram is not art. Social media is not art.”
Marina Abramović (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sometimes it is not about making art. Sometimes it is about making statements about culture and history or history and culture with or through art.”
Richard Hunt first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 2021 (COMPILED FROM NOTES WRITTEN 2001–21)(2022). Richard Hunt. GREGORY R. MILLER & CO. ISBN 9781941366448.
“I am interested more than anything else in being a free person. To me, that means that I can make what I want to make, regardless of what anyone else thinks I should make. My art is about art—embracing a vision of the future that is unlike past futures.”
Richard Hunt first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 2021 (COMPILED FROM NOTES WRITTEN 2001–21)(2022). Richard Hunt. GREGORY R. MILLER & CO. ISBN 9781941366448.
“I get my inspiration from everywhere, and admittedly mostly from places that aren’t food related. I love going to museums, because art really inspires me. When I look at cookbooks, I tend to like the ones that are super artistic- more art books than cookbooks.”
Kristen Kish (born 1984) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am a painter; I am not a lecturer about art nor a scholar of art. It is my chosen role to paint pictures, not to talk about them.”
Ben Shahn (1898–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It [art] communicates directly without asking approval of any authority. Its values are not those of set virtues, but are of the essential nature of man, good or bad. Art is one of the few media of expression which still remains unedited, unprocessed, and undictated. If its hazards are great, so are its potentialities magnificent.”
Ben Shahn (1898–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...what is essential to art: They create art despite trauma, no matter how heartbreaking. They constantly question the reality in which their texts were born, but above all, they make more beautiful, through words, the failure and pain of existence.”
Marjorie Agosín (1955–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you think about human beings, [laughter] people have been people for almost a million years, and what we understand as art and art history is only a fleeting moment in that story.”
Cecilia Vicuña (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Van Damme! No martial art can stop love from hurting you. | Van Damme, no martial art can prevent love. (from Van Damme (Saddam), n. 5)”
Dargen D'Amico (born 1980) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The love and search for works of art dates back to Rome for many years, and since Caesar we have noticed what will be the characteristic of the empire: the transformation of temples from places of religion into places actually intended for the public cult of art, whose monuments could be known and admired by anyone. (chap. 1, p. 19)”
Corrado Barbagallo (1877–1952) said by 1952 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The saw in Raphael an apostate from the Ideal and an apostle of savoir faire; they took Botticelli and Mantegna as examples. But they were not vulgar "smugglers". The salient character of their school is intellectualism, the disdain of art for art's sake; they want to narrate and teach, move the soul of the crowds, descend among the people and convert them to beauty. (pp. 322-323)”
Salomon Reinach (1858–1932) said by 1932 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is humanity in art and charitable work and this is a powerful tool to use in politics if one is to serve the people correctly. We have to care for our youth, elders, under-privileged and those with other challenges. This is the focus of my charity and the message I send through my art.”
Josephine Oboh Macleod (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My art addresses my internal tension between my deep love for Nigeria, my country of birth, and my strong appreciation for Western culture, which has profoundly influenced both my life and my art.”
Njideka Akunyili Crosby (born 1983) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's taken me years to come to that conclusion, and there are still some times as an adult when those feelings creep in again. But I think just doing my art has helped me a lot, and getting my art out there lets me know it's OK just to be who I am.”
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.
“When you eliminate vanity from an art form, and I would think that this would be any art form, what is left is an opportunity to be incredibly naked and truthful”
Lorraine Toussaint (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everything in my life is an art project...to me it is all art.”
Yuyi Morales (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art unexamined is, after all, art unexperienced.”
Jay Lake (1964–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Geography is a science, but it is also an art, because understanding the meaning of area cannot be reduced to a formal process. The highest form of the geographer's art is producing good regional geography- evocative descriptions that facilitate an understanding and an appreciation of places, areas, and regions.”
John Fraser Hart (1924–2024) first seen 1982 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From 1982 paper in Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 72, No. 1 titled "The Highest Form Of The Geographer's Art
“As a dancer dancing in a shower of roses before her King (A dreamer dark, the King) Throws back her head like a wind-loved flower, and makes her cymbals ring (O’er her lit eyes they ring); As a fair white dancer strange of heart, and crown’d and shod with gold, My soul exults before the Art, the magian Art of old.”
Rachel Annand Taylor (1876–1960) said by 1960 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All good art is art devoted to beauty, yes, but beauty is what enhances our humanity, our capacity for love and empathy, for kindness and compassion for our fellow beings regardless of color or tribe or religion.”
Femi Osofisan (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This bourgeois form of art for art's sake is no longerworthy of one's comment or attack. It has only one useful purpose that I can still see: it numbs the minds of the exploiters. Let them continue to support it and be stultified.”
Mike Gold (1893–1967) first seen 1934 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Night in the Million Dollar Slums" in New Masses (April 3, 1934)
“These are random groups which were selected to perform and they perfected their art and now they are the art of the game”
Elizabeth Adjei wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The ministry believes in the importance of the role of the museums in spreading cultural and art awareness and to shed light on the art treasures in Egypt. I urge the citizens to visit the museums in this period.”
Nevine El Kelany (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This recent spectacular growth on the number of art students has certainly boosted the interest for art-related events but not necessarily produced more quality artists on the national and international scene yet”
Rachida Triki (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Bad art has always been used as an escape from life; good art admits of no escape and forces a man to see himself in a glass clearly.”
Gilbert Cannan (1884–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Of all my past passions, of all the varied tendencies, of all the colorful fixations, of all the eclectic manias, I will speak of everything except the most comprehensive and complete art, the art I have always cultivated and adored, but which I have always vilified and mistreated: 'Mother Architecture'.”
Piero Portaluppi (1888–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Creative thinking and art are not measurable since they're testimony of the truth and inherent in all that exists. And this truth, the only truth, has many faces. Who can count the faces of truth? All religion are ultimately the religion of mankind. Art is ritual.”
Susanne Wenger (1915–2009) said by 2009 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If contemporary art is defined as ‘art that is created now’, then the Spier Contemporary is the visual and aural barometer of what it is like to live in South Africa in 2010.”
Angela de Jesus (born 1982) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My art has evolved from the tribal tradition of decorating our homes. The patterns I have used on the BMW Art Car marry tradition to the essence of BMW.”
Esther Mahlangu (born 1935) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 12 - Esther Mahlangu". BMW Art Cars. 13 May 2011. Archived from the original on 22 March 2022. Retrieved 24 March 2025.
“I followed my intuition and started to learn all kinds of art techniques to assist the patients by art therapy. Weaving I liked best. I felt very little satisfaction when following fixed patterns or working out of the themes that teachers provided me with. I could feel that was not my thing.”
Allina Ndebele (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My art is underpinned by ongoing research into the impact of artists and their art making upon environment.”
Carolyn Parton (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My art is underpinned by ongoing research into the impact of artists and their art making upon environment and a thought that I once came across, which is constantly on my mind, is that when you throw away there is no away.”
Carolyn Parton (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was blown away by how people were creating digital art with all this software I’d never heard of, and communicating just using their art.”
Karabo Poppy (born 1993) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art is always artful, a ruse, a trick. It is a court fool, jumping up and down, aping its masters. Art is part of the dream that we inhabit.”
Deborah Poynton (born 1970) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The processes are different for every album. Nothing is ever deliberate. Making art for me is one step in front of the next. You don’t begin with a full art work, you begin with one stroke and then you go. And you ask what else can I do until it’s a full picture.”
Thandiswa Mazwai (born 1976) first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Award-winning artist Thandiswa Mazwai brings ‘A Letter To Azania’ to Cape Town,20 February 2023,By Bongeka Gumede
“Pegg Clarke (Melbourne) has made of photography a consummate art. On gazing at her photographs, several of what one might aptly term "treescapes" having a soft melting grace reminiscent of a Corot without colouring, makes it absolutely indifferent to academic discussions of whether photography is an art or a craft.”
Pegg Clarke (1890–1959) first seen 1936 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Miss Clarke's Art With Camera". The Herald. No. 18, 567. Victoria, Australia. 17 November 1936. p. 7. Retrieved 23 July 2021 – via National Library of Australia. Accessed 12 April 2025.
“Art, to me, is what oxygen is to humans. Without art, I’d be living and existing but not alive”
Nunu Khumalo (born 1992) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: POISED – Nunu Khumalo,November 14, 2014,Written by Sithembiso Promise Xaba