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. 1,158,808 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
EnglishItalianoPolskiעבריתFrançaisPortuguêsفارسیEspañol中文РусскийDeutschالعربيةहिन्दी日本語ΕλληνικάLatina
Art
LoveFriendshipHappinessHopeFearCourageDeathLifeTimeWarPeaceFreedomTruthWisdomKnowledgeScienceArtMusicNatureMoneyWorkPowerGodBeautyLaughterFamilySuccess and failureChangeDreamsBooks and reading
“It is not a certain conformity of manners that the painting of Van Gogh attacks, but rather the conformity of institutions themselves. And even external nature, with her climates, her tides, and her equinoctial storms, cannot, after Van Gogh’s stay upon earth, maintain the same gravitation.”
Antonin Artaud (1896–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We speak of concrete and not abstract painting because nothing is more concrete, more real than a line, a colour, a surface. [quote of Van Doesburg, c. 1925]”
Theo van Doesburg (1883–1931) said by 1931 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: quoted in 'Abstract Art', Anna Moszynska, Thames and Hudson 1990, p. 107
“After having passed through the various phases of plastic creation [the phases of arrangement, composition, and construction] I have arrived at the creation of 'universal forms' through constructing upon an arithmetical basis with the pure elements of painting.”
Theo van Doesburg (1883–1931) first seen 1930 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote in Van Doesburg's article 'From intuition towards certitude', 1930; as quoted in 'Réalités nouvelles', 1947, no. 1, p. 3
“To be white, red, yellow, or black is to be a painter. Today it is not sufficient for the painter to think of colour; he should be colour, feed on colour and transform himself into painting. That is the essential thing. To feel like colour means to carry within oneself the entire range of colours, not as a treasure, but as a trust.”
Theo van Doesburg (1883–1931) said by 1931 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote in Van Doesburg's article 'Elementarism', as cited in De Stijl – Van Doesburg Issue, January 1932, pp. 17–19
“Seeing several of these paintings [his series paintings 'Hommage to the square', Josef Albers painted in 1963-64] next to each other makes it obvious that each painting is an instrumentation on its own.”
Josef Albers (1888–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The media, I tell pedants in the Government, is like an oil painting. Close up, it looks like nothing on earth. Stand back and you get the drift.”
Bernard Ingham (1932–2023) first seen 1990 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Parliamentary Press Gallery (February 1990), as cited in The Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations (1996), p. 188
“As far as the surface is concerned – oil on canvas, conventionally applied – my pictures have little to do with the original photograph. They are totally painting (whatever that may mean). On the other hand, they are so like the photograph that the thing that distinguished the photograph from all other pictures remains intact.”
Gerhard Richter (born 1932) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Notes, 1964-65; as cited on collected quotes on the website of Gerhard Richter: on 'Photo-paintings'
“To me, grey is the welcome and only possible equivalent for indifference, noncommitment, absence of opinion, absence of shape. But grey, like formlessness and the rest, can be real only as an idea, and so all I can do is create a colour nuance that means grey but is not it. The painting is then a mixture of grey as a fiction and grey as a visible, designated area of colour.”
Gerhard Richter (born 1932) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote of Richter on his 'Grey Paintings', in a letter to , 23 February 1975; as cited on collected quotes on the website of Gerhard Richter: on 'Grey-paintings'
“All that interests me is the grey areas, the passages and the tonal sequences, the pictorial spaces, overlaps and interlockings. If I had any way of abandoning the object as the bearer of this structure, I would immediately start painting abstracts.”
Gerhard Richter (born 1932) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I only identified with (Rothko's seriousness, which was absolutely to be admired. At that time, in the 1970's Barnett Newman, with his non-hierarchical structures, his non-relational Color Field painting, seemed more interesting because his work was less pretty.”
Gerhard Richter (born 1932) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A painting by Caspar David Friedrich is not a thing of the past. What is past is only the set of circumstances that allowed it to be painted.. ..it is therefore quite possible to paint like Caspar David Friedrich today.”
Gerhard Richter (born 1932) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What I lack is the spiritual basis which under girded Romantic painting. We have lost the feeling of God's omnipresence in Nature. For us, everything is empty. Yet, these paintings [of a.o. Caspar David Friedrich ] are still there. They still speak to us. We continue to love them, to use them, to have need of them.”
Gerhard Richter (born 1932) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[..that he] would not touch the painting, nor finish it unless the claimant pays him the balance due or guarantees it by giving a security.”
Rembrandt (1606–1669) first seen 1654 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: from a notary document, 1654 (location: RD, 1654/5, 310); as quoted in Rembrandt's Eyes, Simon Schama, Alfred A. Knopf, Borzoi Books, New York 1999, p. 569 - note 7
“Painting is the grandchild of nature. It is related to God.”
Rembrandt (1606–1669) said by 1669 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Rembrandt Drawings (1975) by Paul Némo, as translated by David Macrae
“A painting is not made to be sniffed.”
Rembrandt (1606–1669) said by 1669 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement that a painting should be contemplated at a distance, rather than examined closely; attributed to Rembrandt in early biographies, as quoted in The Rise of the Cult of Rembrandt : Reinventing an Old Master in N…
“..a member of anarchist and revolutionary circles, attracted in turn by violent action and by dream, before resolving to dedicate him to painting. [describing Boccioni ]”
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876–1944) first seen 1910 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In the 'Preface' of Boccioni's show at Ca' Pesaro, July 1910; as quoted in Inventing Futurism: The Art and Politics of Artificial Optimism, by Christine Poggi, Princeton University Press, 2009, p. 107
“No masterpieces in huge frames to worship, … and yet there are the days when every street corner rounds itself into a sunlit surprise, a painting or a phrase, canoes drawn up by the market, the harbour’s blue, the barracks. So much to do still, all of it praise.”
Derek Walcott (1930–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This period of blue monochrome was the product of my pursuit of the indefinable in painting which that master, Eugène Delacroix [Romantic French painter] was able to indicate even in his day.”
Yves Klein (1928–1962) first seen 1957 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In 1957; p. 33
“For me, painting means the continuation of dreaming by other means.”
Neo Rauch (born 1960) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Neo Rauch: ‘For Me, Painting Means the Continuation of Dreaming by other Means’" at the Goethe-Institut (February 2007)
“The uniqueness of every painting was once part of the uniqueness of the place where it resided.”
John Berger (1926–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The picture [Friedrich's painting: 'The Cross on the Baltic Sea' ] for your friend has already been sketched out, but there is no church in it, not a single tree or plant, not a blade of grass. On a bare and rocky seashore there stands, high up, the cross - for those who see it that way, a consolation, and for those who don't see it that way, just a cross.”
Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840) first seen 1815 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote from Friedrich's letter to Louise Seidler, 1815; as cited in Romanticism and realism : the mythology of nineteenth-century art - (from Chapter: Friedrich and the language of Landscape), Charles Rosen and Henri Zer…
“..the great white blanket of snow [in one of his painting of Cemetery / Church in the Snow, mid-1820's].. ..the essence of the utmost purity, beneath which nature prepares herself for a new life..”
Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840) first seen 1820 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote of Friedrich, mid-1820's; as cited by Sigrid Hinz, Caspar David Friedrich in Briefen und Bekenntnisse, p. 133; as cited in Religious Symbolism in Caspar David Friedrich, by Colin J. Bailey, paper; Oct. 1988 - Edin…
“If you add something to a painting, never let it be for aesthetic reasons. Only let it be for reasons of expression.”
Asger Jorn (1914–1973) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement to his friend Pierre Alechinsky, between 1965-1970; as quoted in Asger Jorn (2002) by Arken Museum of Modern Art, p. 115
“The painting will not be looked at passively, not embraced all at once by an observer's immediate gaze. But relived in its elaboration, remade by thought and if I dare say reacted.. .All the gestures made by the painter, he [the observer] feels them reproduced in him.”
Jean Dubuffet (1901–1985) said by 1985 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Music is a means capable of expressing dark dramatism and pure rapture, suffering and ecstasy, fiery and cold fury, melancholy and wild merriment – and the subtlest nuances and interplay of these feelings which words are powerless to express and which are unattainable in painting and sculpture.”
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Power of Music" (1964), translated in Music Journal, September 1965, p. 37.
“You care enough, that you want your life to be fulfilled in a living way, not in a painting way, not in a writing way...you really do want it to be involving in living, corresponding with other living objects, moving, changing, that kind of thing.”
Edie Sedgwick (1943–1971) said by 1971 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Painting is the silence of thought and the music of sight.”
Orhan Pamuk (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The appreciation of a painting or a piece of music, for example, or even falling in love, is all about our subjectivity. But to decide that the entire universe operates in such a way, let alone to go to war because we are so convinced we are right that others must agree with us or die, that surely should demand a higher level of argument than 'It's true because I really, really feel it is.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“At one point Trudeau mentioned to me that the National Gallery wanted to buy a masterpiece by the great Italian painter Lotto, and it needed a million dollars from the Treasury Board. "Is that Lotto-Quebec or Lotto-Canada?" I joked, but I got the message, and the National Gallery got the painting.”
Jean Chrétien (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No real painter ever wants be known through any other medium than his painting.”
Patrick Swift (1927–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Good painting is not produced by any unintelligent following of inspiration or temperament.”
Patrick Swift (1927–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Painting is created from within and we must begin from within if we are to understand it.”
Patrick Swift (1927–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But of course these pictures are not shocking; good painting never is.”
Patrick Swift (1927–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think that I probably have a real talent for painting trees if I developed it assiduously. I want to give them great density and depth pile heaps of detail into them and yet keep the sense of presence which is the whole point.”
Patrick Swift (1927–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“RADIO – DADA DIX whose monumental painting 'Barricade' [now lost] created such a sensation in Dresden”
Otto Dix (1891–1969) first seen 1920 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: from a photo of Otto Dix c. 1920; with text written by himself with crayon on the wall behind him - in standing pose for the photographer; printed in 'Education resource material: beauty, truth and goodness in Dix's War…
“I still don’t have any real interest in painting. I haven’t spoken about it either. I paint for my foundation.. to sell my work for charity. I can’t ask anyone to support or praise my paintings. I’m not a beggar. Tomorrow even if I have nothing at all, I’ll do something or the other, but I won’t beg.”
Salman Khan (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You cannot teach painting because everyone's colour sense is different. But drawing..you either get it right or wrong. You can tell whether people have drawn from life from their pictures.”
L. S. Lowry (1887–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I always saw people painting with their arms and feet and I didn't understand why anyone didn't paint with their penis.”
“Painted using my penis instead of a brush. A short video of that performance will be sold with the painting.”
“He also videotapes every painting he does to prove to people that he actually did it with his penis.”
“Pricasso can paint with either hand, but prefers using his nether regions. He has been painting this way for seven years and has painted ordinary people, celebrities and politicians.”
“I painted like that because I wanted to get through to something new - a kind of painting that was my own.”
Georges Seurat (1859–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: quote from Seurat, John Russell; Thames & Hudson, London 1965
“Painting is that pleasant amusement...being one of the means whereby we convey our ideas to each other.”
Jonathan Richardson (1667–1745) said by 1745 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The theatre gives us representations of things..., and there we see a sort of moving, speaking pictures, but these are transient; whereas painting remains and is always at hand.”
Jonathan Richardson (1667–1745) said by 1745 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It was around 1910/11 that everyone, at every level of the social scale, became aware of those apparent eccentricities that were challenging the precarious certainties of the world. And it was uniquely the painting of a group, not of an individual, that was the cause.”
Albert Gleizes (1881–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nearly conscious in someone like Michelangelo, or Paolo Uccello, quite intuitive in painters such as Ingres, or Corot, it works on the basis of numbers which belong to the painting itself, not to whatever it represents.”
Jean Metzinger (1883–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Gleizes was only trying to reduce the curvature of natural volumes to adapt them more naturally and rigorously to the surface of the painting, a surface which he believed to be continuous with the wall and, for all practical purposes, with no curvature at all.”
Jean Metzinger (1883–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When Hussainji narrated the script [on Gaja Gamini] to me, I couldn´t understand it. And I told him so. So, he worked out a storyboard and then I could visualize the whole film. You know the film is like a painting on celluloid.”
Madhuri Dixit (born 1967) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Brahmacharis as the most difficult thing she had ever done....don't you think I have learnt something from Indian painting?...I don't know whether it is a passing phase or a durable change in my outlook but I see in a more detached manner, more ironically than I have ever done.”
Amrita Sher-Gil (1913–1941) first seen 1937 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In a letter to Karl Khandalavala in 1937 after she had done three paintings on south Indian villagers - The Bride's Toilet, The Brahmacharis, and South Indian Villagers going to Market.
“As an Indian, I remained convinced that the bhav or the feeling of a painting is important, and these put together, can make a good artistic expression. This is what I tried to do during my years in France.”
S. H. Raza (1922–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source