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“I am well aware that a painting must inevitably be a bizarre, incomprehensible thing.”
Bram van Velde (1895–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A painting is not a battle against other people, but against oneself.”
Bram van Velde (1895–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Painting, an oeuvre, is not such a big deal, it is so unimportant. But that’s precisely what makes it interesting.”
Bram van Velde (1895–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Painting is getting in touch with the truth. It's a matter of summoning up the vision I need.”
Bram van Velde (1895–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The real horror is mass production. Painting when there is no compulsion to do so… …Pictures like that are all unpunished crimes.”
Bram van Velde (1895–1981) first seen 1972 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: short quotes, 3 April 1972; p. 86
“When you are working, you are so far away and so absorbed, it's inevitable that you fall into a vacuum when you stop.. ..every time when I finish a painting, I always have to wait to get my strength back before I can begin another.”
Bram van Velde (1895–1981) first seen 1972 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 3 April 1972; p. 90
“I am in a thousand pieces. Painting somehow makes me whole.”
Bram van Velde (1895–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Painting lives only through the slide towards the unknown in oneself.”
Bram van Velde (1895–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What the eye can see won't get us very far. And what it can see is so limited, so restricted. But a gouache or an oil painting can be seen at a glance, can take in a whole world at a single glance.”
Bram van Velde (1895–1981) first seen 1972 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 11 August 1972; pp. 90-91
“Creating a painting is a matter of ensuring that all its parts achieve unity. Though it's a precarious, fragile unity.”
Bram van Velde (1895–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The greatest moment is when you realize that the painting you've just finished is nothing. When you manage to detach yourself from it.”
Bram van Velde (1895–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is only the present. A painting is an instant of time that has escaped oblivion.”
Bram van Velde (1895–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I feel myself tied to life. To the immensity and complexity of life. Each painting is an impulse towards life.”
Bram van Velde (1895–1981) first seen 1972 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: short quotes, 29 August 1972; pp. 92-93
“These universal means of expression were discovered in modern painting by a logical and gradual progress toward ever more abstract form and color. Once the solution was discovered, there followed the exact representation of relations alone, that is to say, of the essential and fundamental element in any plastic emotion of the beautiful.”
Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) said by 1944 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“However, new plasticism is pure painting [in contrast with the opinion of Theo van Doesburg, then]: the means of expression still are form and color, though these are completely interiorized; the straight line and flat color remain purely pictorial means of expression.”
Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) said by 1944 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Only now [1943] I become conscious that my work in black, white and little color planes has been merely 'drawing' in oil color. In drawing, the lines are the principal means of expressions.. .In painting, however, the lines are absorbed by the color planes; but the limitations of the planes show themselves as lines and conserve their great value.”
Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) first seen 1943 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: note from his postcard, late May 1943; as quoted in Mondrian, - The Art of Destruction, Carel Blotkamp, Reaktion Books LTD. London 2001, p. 240
“I do not have a comic or tragic period in any real sense. I have always painted dark pictures; always some light pictures. I will probably go on doing so.. .Orchestral. My work in its entirety is like a symphony in which each painting has its part.”
Clyfford Still (1904–1980) first seen 1961 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Gallery Notes, Allbright-Knox Art Gallery, Vol. 24 summer 1961 pp. 9-14; as quoted in Abstract Expressionism Creators and Critics, edited by Clifford Ross, Abrams Publishers New York 1990, p. 197
“As for 'taste' as a criterion of painting I find that it is most frequently applied to work that is essentially insensitive, brutal or vulgar beyond question. Could it now be a term with political undertones to seduce, or cover profounder motives of exploitation? I propose it be kept to the wine cellar. There it deceives no one but him who over-indulges.”
Clyfford Still (1904–1980) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Clyfford Still, in an interview with Ti Grace Sharpless, 1963; as quoted in Abstract Expressionism Creators and Critics, edited by Clifford Ross, Abrams Publishers New York 1990, p. 201
“[..that the execution of 'Pan Pan'] was influenced by the sounds of the ambiance [and the painting].. ..was only musical, to the detriment of the volumes and the forms that I had unconsciously neglected.. ..[in] following the greater emotional cause: the sounds.”
Gino Severini (1883–1966) first seen 1913 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: letter to Ardegno Soffici, 27 September, 1913 (Pienza); as cited in Archivi del Futurismo Volume 1. eds. Maria Drudi Gambillo and Teresa Fiori (Rome: De Luca, 1958-68; 2nd ed. 1986), pp. 291-293
“The sea dancing, it's zig-zag movements and contrasting silver and emerald, evokes within my plastic sensibility the distant vision of a dancer covered in a sparkling sequins in her world of light, noise and sound. Therefore 'Sea = dancer' [= title of a painting he made in 1914]”
Gino Severini (1883–1966) first seen 1914 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'The Plastic Analogies of Dynamism', c. 1914; as quoted in Inventing Futurism: The Art and Politics of Artificial Optimism, by Christine Poggi, Princeton University Press, 2009, p. 217
“My first lesson in relativity: ..we had a still life set-up to paint. Suddenly I saw that the pitcher was so big [his hands outside the shape of a pitcher, then close in] and the glass was so big. From that time on everything was all right. [Tobey is remembering his Saturday morning painting class]”
Mark Tobey (1890–1976) first seen 1951 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Tobey Profile, quoted by Belle Krasne, Art Digest, 26 Oct. 15, 1951
“There is something in painting which cannot be explained, and that something is the essential. You come to Nature with your theories, and she knocks them all flat.”
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) said by 1919 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Masterpieces of painting from the National Gallery of Art (1944), p. 168
“For me, a painting must be a pleasant thing, joyous and pretty - yes, pretty. There are too many unpleasant things in life for us to fabricate still more.”
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) said by 1919 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in: Faber Birren (1965) History of color in painting: with new principles of color expression. p. 284-5
“What seems most significant to me about our movement is that we have freed painting from the importance of the subject. I am at liberty to paint flowers and call them flowers, without their needing to tell a story.”
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) said by 1919 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in: Charles Altieri (1989) Painterly Abstraction in Modernist American Poetry, p. 169: Talking about the movement of Impressionism.
“I would never have taken up painting if women did not have breasts.”
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) said by 1919 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tibballs Geoff, ‎Geoff Tibballs (2012) The Mammoth Book of Comic Quotes, p. 80
“It gives my brain a rest, painting flowers. I don't feel the same tension as when I have a model in front of me. When I paint flowers, I put on colours and try out values boldly, without worrying about wasting a canvas. I wouldn't dare to do it with a figure; I'd be afraid of spoiling the whole thing. And the experience I gain this way is then applied to my pictures.”
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) said by 1919 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You can’t civilize war,” Dalinar said. “There’s no painting it up and making it pretty.”
Brandon Sanderson (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As for the value of color I am close to the philosophy of Fauvists: Matisse, Raoul Dufy, and Vlaminck. In other words, color for me is the most important constituent of painting. The composition and form extract themselves from the depth of color. My colors are the spirit of my paintings. For example, when the space is sad it is my pallet of colors that convey this sadness first.”
Guity Novin (born 1944) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Like left-liberals, "lite libertarians"—they're the kind that is afflicted with the same spineless conformity; a deformation of the personality euphemized as political correctness—are incapable of appreciating a script or book; a painting or symphony; a stand-up routine, if only because the material and its creator violates the received laws of political correctness.”
Ilana Mercer first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: ILANA MERCER, " "Cathy Reisenwitz Redux: Steigerwald, Oy Vey Gevalt!" The British Libertarian Alliance, January 14, 2015
“Sculpture and painting are moments of life. Poetry is life itself.”
Florence Earle Coates (1850–1927) said by 1927 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Truth does not require your painting, brother; it is itself beauty. Unfold it, and men will be captivated. Take your brush to set off the rainbow, or give a new tinge of splendor to the setting sun, but keep it away from the "Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley.”
David Thomas (born 1813) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Maybe God is waiting for us to be silent long enough so he may begin painting a new picture in our imaginations, to begin transforming our image of a manageable deity into one that can truly inspire.”
Skye Jethani (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My favourite painting is often the one or the collection that I am currently working on. This is probably due to the fact that I don’t yet know where it will take me.”
Joseph Pisani (born 1971) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "The Conceptual Artist" Inside Switzerland magazine Individuals (Summer 2006), p. 23
“Words are pale shadows of forgotten names. As names have power, words have power. Words can light fires in the minds of men. Words can wring tears from the hardest hearts. There are seven words that will make a person love you. There are ten words that will break a strong man’s will. But a word is nothing but a painting of a fire. A name is the fire itself.”
Patrick Rothfuss (born 1973) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The point is that any piece of Impressionism, whether it be prose, verse or painting, or sculpture, is the record of the impression.”
F. S. Flint (1885–1960) said by 1960 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If it hurt me to have to give up a painting I figured it had to hurt them to write the check. That's how I came up with the price for my work.”
Keariene Muizz (born 1977) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Associated Press (2008); from an interview conducted by John Rogers.
“This dress is something I would want to be buried in! (On wanting to be buried in the painting she converted into a dress.)”
Keariene Muizz (born 1977) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Today Show (2012)
“Eventually you can see that your pain was part of a much larger picture that God was carefully painting.”
James MacDonald (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“..And his painting is like the wind, like a breeze blowing the paint across the canvas, so unreal, so loose and far away from the worldly life.”
Karel Appel (1921–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My paint is like a rocket, which describes its own space. I try to make the impossible possible. What is happening I cannot foresee, it is a surprise. Painting, like passion, is an emotion full of truth and rings a living sound, like the roar coming from the lion's breast.”
Karel Appel (1921–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To paint is to destroy what preceded. I never try to make a painting, but a chunk of life. It is a scream; it is a night; it is like a child; it is a tiger behind bars.”
Karel Appel (1921–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There exists an insanity that touches on a higher level, by knowledge or instinct. That insanity of life I try to put in my painting. It has nothing to do with any morals or laws. It is there and it is insane.”
Karel Appel (1921–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The brushstroke, in painting, is purely and simply what it is – rhythm, color, matter.”
Karel Appel (1921–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The only control that I excercize [in painting] is to not throw too much paint next to the canvas.”
Karel Appel (1921–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“'Departure' [also the title of a famous triptych painting of Max Beckmann], yes departure from the illusion of life toward the essential things that wait behind appearance.. .We must insist that Departure is not bound to a political trend, but is symbolic for all times.”
Max Beckmann (1884–1950) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In a letter to his art dealer Curt Valentin, Amsterdam, 11 February 1938; as quoted in Max Beckmann – On my Painting in the preface, Mayen Beckmann; Tate Publishing London, 2003
“The time has passed for our sensations in painting to be whispered. We wish them in the future to sing and re-echo upon our canvasses in deafening and triumphant flourishes.”
Umberto Boccioni (1882–1916) said by 1916 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Futurism, ed. Didier Ottinger; Centre Pompidou / 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2008, p. 132.
“Not only have we radically abandoned the motive fully developed according to its determined and, therefore, artificial equilibrium, but we suddenly and purposely intersect each motif with one or more other motifs of which we never give the full development but merely the initial, central, of final notes.. .We thus arrived at what we call the painting of states of mind.”
Umberto Boccioni (1882–1916) said by 1916 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The first painting to appear with an affirmation of simultaneity was mine and had the following title: 'Simultaneous visions', [Boccioni painted in 1911]. It was exhibited in the galerie Bernheim in Paris, and in the same exhibition my Futurist painter friends also appeared with similar experiments in simultaneity.”
Umberto Boccioni (1882–1916) said by 1916 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boccioni's quote on early realized simultaneity in his art; as quoted in Futurism, ed. Didier Ottinger; Centre Pompidou / 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2008, p. 458.
“When I was a child, I spent all my spare time looking at birds and insects (beetles). My color use, and the object quality of the 'painting', and the use of fragmentation is closer to birds and beetles and fish, than it is to De Stijl or the Constructivists.”
Ellsworth Kelly (1923–2015) first seen 1969 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. unknown : 'Notes from 1969'
“The form of my painting is the content.”
Ellsworth Kelly (1923–2015) first seen 1990 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: as quoted in "Abstract Art", Anna Moszynska, Thames and Hudson 1990, p. 173