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“We are freeing ourselves of the impediments of memory, association, nostalgia, legend, myth, or what have you, that have been the devices of western European painting. Instead of making 'cathedrals' out of Christ, man, or 'life', we are making it out of ourselves, out of our own feelings..”
Barnett Newman (1905–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Aesthetics is for painting as Ornithology is for the birds.”
Barnett Newman (1905–1970) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote of Newman (1952), as cited in: C. Greig Crysler, ‎Stephen Cairns, ‎Hilde Heynen (2012). The SAGE Handbook of Architectural Theory. p. 123
“Painting, like passion, is a living voice, which, when I hear it, I must let it speak, unfettered.”
Barnett Newman (1905–1970) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Barnett Newman, in The New American Painting, exhibition catalogue May 28 - Sept 8. 1959; republished in: Barnett Newman, John Philip O'Neill. (1992). Barnett Newman: Selected Writings and Interviews. p. 160
“The problem of a painting is physical and metaphysical the same as I think life is physical and metaphysical.”
Barnett Newman (1905–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A painting is not a picture of an experience; it is an experience.”
Mark Rothko (1903–1970) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Mark Rothko", Dorothy Seiberling in LIFE magazine (November 16, 1959), p. 82
“It was not that the figure had been removed, not that the figures had been swept away, but the symbols for the figures, and in turn the shapes in the later canvases were substitutes for the figures.. ..these new shapes say.. ..what the symbols said. [Rothko, explaining Seitz his new way of painting during the mid-1940s]”
Mark Rothko (1903–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Abstract Expressionist Painting in America, W.C, Seitz, Cambridge Massachusetts, (1983), p. 142
“Gradually [late 1920's] the canvas became the base and the painting was a sculpture. [quote, early 1950's]”
David Smith (1906–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every intelligent modern painter carries the whole culture of modern painting in his head.”
Robert Motherwell (1915–1991) first seen 1990 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Abstract Expressionism, David Anfam, Thames and Hudson Ltd London, 1990, p. 22
“How did I think up my drawings and my ideas for painting? Well I'd come home to my Paris studio in Rue Blomet at night, I'd go to bed, and sometimes I hadn't any supper. I saw things, and I jotted them down in a notebook. I saw shapes on the ceiling..”
Joan Miró (1893–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Painting must be fertile. It must give birth to a world.. ..it must fertilize the imagination.”
Joan Miró (1893–1983) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: from: Taillandier, 1959; as quoted in Calder Miró, ed. Elizabeth Hutton Turner / Oliver Wick; Philip Wilson Publishers, London 2004, p. 82, note 24
“Don't you think your Corot [to Guilemet the painter] is a little short on temperament? I'm painting a portrait of Vallabreque; the highlight on the nose is pure vermilion [remark of Cezanne ca. 1860]”
Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) said by 1906 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote in: Cézanne, by , Dover publications Inc. New York, 1984, p. 28
“Painting from nature is not copying the object, it is realizing sensations.”
Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) said by 1906 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yes, a bunch of carrots, observed directly, painted simply in the personal way one sees it, worth more than the Ecole's everlasting slices of buttered bread, that tobacco-juice painting, slavishly done by the book? The day is coming when a single original carrot will give birth to a revolution.”
Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) said by 1906 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here you are, put this somewhere, on your work table. You must always have this before your eyes.. .It's a new order of painting. Our Renaissance starts here.. .There's a pictorial truth in things. This rose and this white lead us to it by a path hitherto unknown to our sensibility..”
Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) said by 1906 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But what an eye Monet has, the most prodigious eye since painting began! I raise my hat to him. As for Courbet, he already had the image in his eye, ready-made. Monet used to visit him, you know, in his early days.. .But a touch of green, believe me, is enough to give us a landscape, just as a flesh tone will translate a face for us..”
Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) said by 1906 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“..in my ideal of a good painting; there's unity. The drawing and the colour are no longer distinct; as soon as you paint you draw; the more the colours harmonize, the more precise the drawing becomes. I know that from experience. When the colour is at its richest, the form is at its fullest.”
Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) said by 1906 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The best spot painting you can have by me is one painted by Rachel.”
Damien Hirst (born 1965) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the Way to Work, p. 82, Faber and Faber, 2001.
“This is a dark painting with a bit of violence because I was very affected by Diana's death. I cried all day because I liked her, warts and all. Most of all I liked the way that she wanted to be loved and didn't mind admitting it.”
Stella Vine (born 1969) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Richard Alleyen, "First blood to Saatchi as a star is born", The Daily Telegraph, (2004-02-24)
“I think there is a total equality for me between painting a literary figure or Kate Moss or my Mum or a dog or a bird. To me, they are all absolutely equal.”
Stella Vine (born 1969) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Honigman, Ana Finel. "Stella Vine in conversation with Ana Finel Honigman", Saatchi Gallery (2007-07-25).
“I like strong/vulnerable interesting women, and then sometimes I like painting beautiful men, like Kurt Cobain, or Mr Darcy.”
Stella Vine (born 1969) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Stella Vine's The Waltz at Museum of New Art", Detroit Museum of New Art, (2006-09-15.
“I had been painting Kate Moss for a long time, both before the time of her crisis and during it. I felt very strongly for her - she's a hard-working mum and it seemed as if suddenly the world turned against her. Holy water cannot help you now is painted in very warm pretty colours...”
Stella Vine (born 1969) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Williams-Akoto. "My Home: Stella Vine, artist", The Independent, (2005-11-30)
“When Alexander McQueen bought the Kate Moss painting, she was really being persecuted. I can't remember the exact timing, but I think it was before the cocaine, when she was just having a hard time with Peter. I think that was when he bought that. I was really pleased because he was such a huge supporter of her. It was so terrible what was happening to her.”
Stella Vine (born 1969) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Honigman, Ana Finel. "Stella Vine in conversation with Ana Finel Honigman", Saatchi Gallery (2007-07-25)
“My working hours are not that conventional. I often get up about two in the morning and do a painting, and then I'll have a bath, and then I often feel very hungry around 4am, so I'll go into Soho and have a meal somewhere like Balans. That's what I love about living here - there's always life around me.”
Stella Vine (born 1969) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Williams-Akoto. "My Home: Stella Vine, artist", The Independent, (2005-11-30)
“..though I'm a rogue in talking upon Painting and love to seem to take things wrong I can be serious and honest upon any subject thoroughly pleasing to me.”
Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788) first seen 1767 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: letter,from Bath 2 Sept. 1767, to his friend William Jackson of Exeter; as cited in The Letters of Thomas Gainsborough, ed. Mary Woodall, 1961
“I wish you would recollect that Painting and Punctuality mix like Oil and Vinegar, and that Genius and regularity are utter Enemies.”
Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788) first seen 1772 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Edward Stratford (a patron), 1 May 1772
“There is a branch of painting next in profit to Portrait and quite within your power without any more drawing them I'm answer for you having, which is Drapery & Land-skip.”
Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788) said by 1788 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For many years, and like many British people, I had little feeling for the most expressive and roughest form of early twentieth century European painting, the expressionism of German artists around the First World War like Kirchner.”
Nicholas Serota (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He has no talent at all, that boy! You, who are his friend, tell him please to give up painting.”
Édouard Manet (1832–1883) first seen 1874 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: spoken to Claude Monet about Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1874), as quoted by John Rewald, The History of Impressionism, Vol.1 (1961).
“The Bellevue air [suburb outside Paris with curative waters] has done me a world of good.. .But Alas! Naturalist painting is more in disfavor than ever.”
Édouard Manet (1832–1883) first seen 1880 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: quote in a letter to Emile Zola, June 1880; as quoted by Colin B. Bailey, in The Annenberg Collection: Masterpieces of Impressionism and Post-impressionism, publish. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2009, p. 16 - n…
“The kind of painting which I find exciting is not necessarily representational or non-representational, but it is musical and architectural... Whether this visual relationship is slightly more or slightly less abstract is, for me, beside the point.”
Ben Nicholson (1894–1982) first seen 1948 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Notes on Abstract Art" in Herbert Read's Ben Nicholson: Paintings, Reliefs, Drawings (London, 1948)
“In 1907 I was most strongly influenced by Giotto during my first Italian trip, as well as by Etruscan sculpture and the early Etruscan landscape painting in the Vatican library in Rome.”
Max Pechstein (1881–1955) first seen 1920 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In his letter in 1920, to ; as quoted in Georg Biermann - Max Pechstein, Leipzig 1920, p. 14
“If a symbol should be discovered in a painting of mine, it was not my intention. It is a result I did not seek. It is something that may be found afterwards, and which can be interpreted according to taste.”
Marc Chagall (1887–1985) first seen 1887 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In Marc Chagall 1887-1985: Painting As Poetry by Ingo F. Walther, Rainer Metzger, p. 78
“As I was painting today, some thoughts came to me and I want to write them down for the people I love. I know that I shall not live very long. But I wonder, is that sad? Is a celebration more beautiful because it lasts longer? And my life is a celebration, a short, intense celebration.”
Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876–1907) first seen 1900 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In her Journal-entry, 26 July 1900; as quoted in Tromp M, Ravelli AC, Reitsma JB, Bonsel GJ, Mol BW: Increasing maternal age at first pregnancy planning: health outcomes and associated costs, in: 'J Epidemiol Community …
“Is it true that all I ever write you about is painting and nothing else? Isn't there love in my lines to you and between the lines, shining and glowing and quiet and loving, the way a woman should love and the way your woman loves you?”
Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876–1907) first seen 1901 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In a letter to her husband Otto Modersohn, from Berlin, 4 February 1901; as quoted in Voicing our visions, -Writings by women artists; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 201
“I am now mainly painting faces and landscapes; I am obsessed day and night by the vision of faces and colours. And the spiritual vision is my mystical world.”
Alexej von Jawlensky (1864–1941) first seen 1917 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote of Jawlensky from a letter to his brother Dimitri, c. 1917/18; as cited in Alexej von Jawlensky, Museum Boymans-van-Beuningen, Rotterdam; exhibition catalog 25/9 – 27/11-1994, p. 150
“At first I intended to carry on working in Saint-Prex [in Switzerland, circa 1914 – 1915] in the same way I had been working in Munich [the location of his Blaue Reiter / Blue Rider period]. But something inside me prevented me from painting colourful, sensuous pictures. Suffering had changed my soul, telling me to find other forms and colours to express what was on my mind.”
Alexej von Jawlensky (1864–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the best painting as in authentic poetry one is aware of moral pressures exerted... choices are important, moral pressure exists to make right and wrong choices.”
Stanley Kunitz (1905–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I feel tired and discouraged and I lie down on the sofa, then I think of the simplest thing I can – a piece of string – and I go in it and paint it. That's the way to keep painting – to create something inside that makes you want to recreate it.”
Arshile Gorky (1904–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You know how fussy and particular I am in painting. I am ever removing the paint and repainting the spot until I am completely exhausted.”
Arshile Gorky (1904–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every minute everything is different everywhere. It is all flowing.. .The duty or beauty of a painting is that there is no reason to do it nor any reason not to. It can be done as a direct act or contact with the moment and that is the moment you are awake and moving. It all passes and is never true literally as the present again leaving more work to be done.”
Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008) first seen 1961 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote of Rauschenberg (1961), as cited in Introduction, Roberta Bernstein, from catalog 'The White and Black Paintings'
“I don't crop. Photography is like diamond cutting. If you miss you miss. There is no difference with painting. If you don't cut you have to accept the whole image. You wait until life is in the frame, then you have the permission to click. I like the adventure of waiting until the whole frame is full.”
Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If I feel a painting I'm working on doesn't have imagery or emotion, I paint it out and work over it until it does.”
Franz Kline (1910–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Almost everything, if one keeps one's eyes open, is potential material for painting.”
Graham Sutherland (1903–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In painting, you have to destroy in order to gain. You have got to sacrifice something you are quite pleased with in order to get something better.”
Graham Sutherland (1903–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The compression of the modern picture, its variety, its breaking up of forms.. .It is certain that the evolution of the means of locomotion and their speed have a great deal to do with the new way of seeing. Many superficial people raise the cry 'anarchy' in front of these pictures because they cannot follow the whole evolution of contemporary life that painting records.”
Fernand Léger (1881–1955) first seen 1914 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote, 1914, in 'Functions of Painting by Fernand Leger'; p. 12
“The concept of Abstract painting is not a passing abstraction, good only for a few initiates, [but] the total expression of a new generation whose necessities it experiences and to all of whose aspirations it constitutes a response. (quote, 1920)”
Fernand Léger (1881–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote of Leger in: Abstract Painting, Michel Seuphor, Dell Publishing Co., 1964, p. 16
“There was no telling who this head, or this leg, or that arm, belonged to.. .So I scattered the limbs in my painting and realized that in this way I was getting much closer to the truth than Michelangelo did when he concentrated on every separate muscle.”
Fernand Léger (1881–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: as quoted from the exhibition catalogue Fernand Legér, Paris, 1956
“I'll get an inspiration and start painting; then I'll forget everything, everything except how things used to be and how to paint it so people will know how we used to live.”
Grandma Moses (1860–1961) first seen 1961 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in her obituary in The New York Times (14 December 1961)
“Painting's not important. The important thing is keeping busy.”
Grandma Moses (1860–1961) said by 1961 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in New Leaves (1986) by Louise Matteoni
“If I hadn't started painting, I would have raised chickens.”
Grandma Moses (1860–1961) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Grandma Moses, American Primitive : Forty Paintings (1947) by Otto Kallir