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. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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“Painting is being alive. Through my painting, I beat back this world that stops us living and where we are in constant danger of being destroyed.. .No, you have to know when to keep silent.”
Bram van Velde (1895–1981) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: short quotes, 31 December 1966; pp. 60-61
“Painting doesn't interest me.. .What I paint is beyond painting.”
Bram van Velde (1895–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The first thing to change in my painting was the color [c. 1908-09]. I forsook natural color for pure color. I had come to feel that the colors of nature cannot be reproduced on canvas. Instinctively I felt that painting had to find a new way to express the beauty of nature.”
Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) first seen 1905 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote of Mondrian about 1905-1910; in 'Mondrian, Essays' ('Plastic art and pure plastic art', 1937 and his other essays, (1941-1943) by Piet Mondrian; Wittenborn-Schultz Inc., New York, 1945, p. 10; as cited in De Stijl…
“Dear Does [= Theo van Doesburg ], thank you for your letter.. .I was glad to know that in principle you are in favour of the diamond hanging [Mondrian's painting, he made in 1919, hanging in a rhombus] and I think that in practice you will approve of this method for some of my things. You look at the thing [painting] itself, and not only the outward appearance..”
Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) first seen 1919 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In a letter to Theo van Doesburg, 3 March 1919; as quoted in Mondrian, - The Art of Destruction, Carel Blotkamp, Reaktion Books LTD. London 2001, p. 122
“I am not an action painter. Each painting is an act. The result of action and the fulfillment of action.. .No painting stops with itself, is complete of itself. It is a continuation of previous paintings and is renewed in successive ones..”
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
“We look at the mountain to see the painting, then we look at the painting to see the mountain.”
Mark Tobey (1890–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I went to see this picture [Raphael's painting 'Madonna della Sedia' which Renoir saw in Florence in 1882] just to have a good laugh – and I found myself in front of the most wonderfully free, solid, simple, alive painting it is possible to imagine – arms and legs of real flesh, and what a touching expression of maternal tenderness.”
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) first seen 1882 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 161-162 : (1882), in a letter to Vollard
“I want to give something [a painting to museum The Luxembourg in Paris, c. 1910] I can't be sure of doing again. I could do ten more nudes like that one [a large nude painting, suggested by Georges Riviere], whenever I liked.. .This one turned out well. I don't think I'd be able to do that again.”
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) first seen 1910 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: a remark to George Riviere, (c. 1910); as quoted in Renoir – his life and work, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 230
“..people always talk about painting, because basically painting does not talk.”
Karel Appel (1921–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is not the subject which matters but the translation of the subject into the abstraction of the surface by means of painting. Therefore I hardly need to abstract things, for each object is unreal enough already, so unreal that I can only make it real by means of painting.”
Max Beckmann (1884–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“..that dizzy seething of forms and acoustic lights, rowdy and smelly [visible in the paintings at the Futurist exhibition, February 1912 in Paris].. ..to obtain this total painting which calls for the active cooperation of all the senses: painting of the plastic mood of the universal, you have to paint the way drunkards sing and vomit, sounds, noises and smells.”
Carlo Carrà (1881–1966) first seen 1913 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote in The painting of Sounds, Noises and Smells Carrà, in 'Lacerba' vol. 1. no. 17, 1,Florence, 1 September 1913, pp. 186-187
“Like the postcard collages, the colors are shapes in a landscape. In this case [his collage 'Napoleon at Würtsburg'] it is a painting of a landscape, not a photo as in the postcards [collages], and therefore a contrast of the traditional painting and a presentation of literal space on top of depicted space.”
Ellsworth Kelly (1923–2015) first seen 1985 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In: 'Kelly in conversation, summers 1985 and 1986'; ed. Diane Upright, "Ellsworth Kelly: Works on Paper", Harry N. Inc., Publishers, New York, in association with the Fort Worth Art Museum, New York, 1987 p. 21
“...this bull is a bull and this horse is a horse... If you give a meaning to certain things in my paintings it may be very true, but it is not my idea to give this meaning. What ideas and conclusions you have got I obtained too, but instinctively, unconsciously. I make the painting for the painting. I paint the objects for what they are.”
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Paul Jones (2011), The Sociology of Architecture: Constructing Identities. p. 47.
“I deal with painting as I deal with things, I paint a window just as I look out of a window. If an open window looks wrong in a picture, I draw the curtain and shut it, just as I would in my own room. In painting, as in life, you must act directly.”
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) first seen 1968 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Herschel Browning Chip (1968, p. 271).
“Watching the painter painting And all the time, the light is changing And he keeps painting That bit there, it was an accident But he's so pleased It's the best mistake, he could make And it's my favourite piece. It's just great.”
“Painting is something that takes place among the colors, and ... one has to leave them alone completely, so that they can settle the matter among themselves. Their intercourse: this is the whole of painting. Whoever meddles, arranges, injects his human deliberation, his wit, his advocacy, his intellectual agility in any way, is already disturbing and clouding their activity.”
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) first seen 1907 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to his wife, reprinted in Rilke’s Letters on Cézanne (1952, trans. 1985). (October 21, 1907)
“By nature I mean here, like the naïvest realist, a composite of perceiver and perceived, not a datum, an experience. All I wish to suggest is that the tendency and accomplishment of this painting are fundamentally those of previous painting, straining to enlarge the statement of a compromise.”
Samuel Beckett (1906–1989) said by 1989 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Also quoted in "Beckett and Failure", in Realism, Issue 5 (June 2011)
“It is the act of painting, not the finished painting.”
Georges Braque (1882–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A society person who is enthusiastic about modern painting or Truman Capote is already half a traitor to his class. It is middle-class people who, quite mistakenly, imagine that a lively pursuit of the latest in reading and painting will advance their status in the world.”
Mary McCarthy (1912–1989) said by 1989 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I don't work from drawings and colour sketches into a final painting. Painting, I think, today – the more immediate, the more direct – the greater the possibilities of making a direct – of making a statement.”
Jackson Pollock (1912–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One has to seek Beauty and Truth, Sir! As I always say to my pupils, you have to work to the finish. There's only one kind of painting. It is the painting that presents the eye with perfection, the kind of beautiful and impeccable enamel you find in Veronese and Titian.”
William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905) first seen 1895 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Bouguereau (1895); Attributed in: Jefferson C. Harrison (1986) French paintings from the Chrysler Museum. Chrysler Museum, North Carolina Museum of Art, Birmingham Museum of Art (Birmingham, Ala.). p.45.
“In old times, men used their powers of painting to show the objects of faith; in later times, they used the objects of faith that they might show their powers of painting.”
John Ruskin (1819–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It doesn’t matter that your painting is small. Kopecks are also small, but when a lot are put together they make a ruble. Each painting displayed in a gallery and each good book that makes it into a library, no matter how small they may be, serve a great cause: accretion of the national wealth.”
Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) first seen 1888 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to S.P. Kuvshinnikova (December 25, 1888)
“Remember crime against property is not real crime. People look at an oil painting and admire the use of brushstrokes to convey meaning. People look at a graffiti painting and admire the use of a drainpipe to gain access.”
“Painting something that defies the law of the land is good. Painting something that defies the law of the land and defies the law of gravity at the same time is really good.”
“I have just finished one painting and am already at work on the preliminary drawings for the next one. I must do something in order to get rid of such habits or I won't manage to find time for any vacation. I have had this new painting in my mind since January, and must get it down on canvas.”
Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) first seen 1934 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote from his letter to Freundlich, 15 July 15, 1938; as cited in Kandinsky in Paris: 1934-1944 - exhibition catalog, published by The Solomon K. Guggenheim Foundation, New York, 1985, p. 27
“Each painting has its own way of evolving. One may start with a few color areas on the canvas; another with a myriad of lines, another with a profusion of colors.. .Once I sense the suggestion I begin to paint intuitively. The suggestion then becomes a phantom that must be caught and made real. As I work, or when the painting is finished, the subject reveals itself.”
William Baziotes (1912–1963) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: I Cannot Evolve Any Concrete Theory, William Baziotes, in Possibilities, Vol. I, no. 1, New York, winter 1947-48, p. 2
“[the process of painting..] ..is conceived of as an adventure, without preconceived ideas on the part of persons of intelligence, sensibility, and passion. Fidelity to what occurs between oneself and the canvas, no matter how unexpected, becomes central.. ..the major decisions in the process of painting are on the grounds of truth, not taste...”
Robert Motherwell (1915–1991) first seen 1951 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The School of New York, exhibition catalogue, Perls Gallery, 1951; as quoted in the New York School – the painters & sculptors of the fifties, Irving Sandler, Harper & Row Publishers, 1978, p. 46
“I love painting the way one loves the body of a women.. ..if painting must have an intellectual and social background, it is only to enhance and make more rich an essentially warm, simple, radiant act, for which everyone has a need.”
Robert Motherwell (1915–1991) first seen 1983 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Conversation with W.C. Seitz, in Abstract Expressionist Painting in America, W.C, Seitz, Cambridge Massachusetts, 1983
“to try also, inasmuch as possible, to go beyond easel painting, which in my opinion has a narrow goal, and to bring myself closer, through painting, to the human masses I have never stopped thinking about.”
Joan Miró (1893–1983) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In: 'Je rêve d'un grand atelier', Miro 1938; as quoted in Calder Miró, ed. Elizabeth Hutton Turner / Oliver Wick; Philip Wilson Publishers, London 2004, p. 65
“You can do plein-air painting indoors, [to his pupil then, Berthe Morisot ] by painting white in the morning, lilac during the day and orange tones in the evening.”
Édouard Manet (1832–1883) said by 1883 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: quote of Manet, recorded bij Berthe Morisot; in Manet by Himself, ed. Juliet Wilson Bareau Little Brown 2000, London; p. 303
“I was painting modern Paris while you were still painting Greek athletes..”
Édouard Manet (1832–1883) said by 1883 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: quote from The Impressionists at first hand, by Bernard Denvir; Thames and Hudson, London 1991, p. 78
“In Braque and Gris, they seemed to have idea of the organization beforehand in their mind. With Bonnard, he is organizing in front of you. You can tell in Leger just when he discovered how to make it like an engine.. ..What's wrong with that? You see it in Barney (= Barnett Newman) too, that he knows what a painting should be. He paints as he thinks painting should be, which is pretty heroic..”
Franz Kline (1910–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I venture out to the great 'sujet'; but, I repeat, my painting always remains object painting; it starts around 1936 with 'Adam et Eve'. My figures humanise themselves further, but I always stick to the pictorial circumstance – no eloquence, no romanticism -”
Fernand Léger (1881–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Bekentnisse und Gespräche, Fernand Léger, André Verdet, Zürich 1957, pp. 32-33
“I did not teach painting but seeing. I concentrated on the basic courses for beginners. I taught drawing (purposely without nudes), color (without any painting as such) and design (as 'structural organization'). And so the graduate students came 'down' to the basic courses for beginners.”
Josef Albers (1888–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To talk about paintings is not only difficult but perhaps pointless, too. You can only express in words what words are capable of expressing, what language can communicate. Painting has nothing to do with that.. .Painting is another form of thinking.”
Gerhard Richter (born 1932) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote, 1970's; from the documentary 'Gerhard Richter - Painting', Corrinna Belz, 2011
“I believe I am looking for rightness. My work has so much to do with reality that I wanted to have a corresponding rightness. That excludes painting in imitation. In nature everything is always right: the structure is right, the proportions are good, the colours fit the forms. If you imitate that in painting, it becomes false.”
Gerhard Richter (born 1932) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Anna Tilroe, 1987; as cited on collected quotes on the website of Gerhard Richter: on 'Abstract paintings'
“My first photo Picture? I was doing large pictures in gloss enamel.. .One day a photograph of Brigit Bardot fell into my hands, and I painted it into one of these pictures in shades of grey. I had had enough of bloody painting, and painting from a photograph seemed to me the most moronic.. ..thing that everyone could do.”
Gerhard Richter (born 1932) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Half or more of the best new work in the last few years has been neither painting nor sculpture. Usually it has been related, closely or distantly, to one or the other. The work is diverse, and much in it that is not in painting and sculpture is also diverse. But there are some things that occur nearly in common.”
Donald Judd (1928–1994) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 74; Lead paragraph; partly cited in: Diane Waldman. Carl Andre. Published 1970 by Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. p. 6
“The new work obviously resembles sculpture more than it does painting, but it is nearer to painting.”
Donald Judd (1928–1994) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 75; Cited in: Diane Waldman. Carl Andre. Published 1970 by Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. p. 6
“More often than not, [people] expect a painting to speak to them in terms other than visual, preferably in words, whereas when a painting or a sculpture needs to be supplemented and explained by words it means either that it has not fulfilled its function or that the public is deprived of vision,”
Naum Gabo (1890–1977) first seen 1962 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote of Naum Gabo (1962), as cited in: Joseph Goguen (1999) Art and the Brain. p. 76
“Pricasso, who has been painting with his penis for six years, said painting with his penis could be painful, but he had resorted to making his own non-toxic, washable paint.”
“Painting is not what my life is about, but it is very important to me, and I am very lucky to be able to give some time to it. The time that I devote to painting is not a lot of time, but I do it 100 percent while I am working, and then there's nothing else that counts.”
Margrethe II of Denmark (born 1940) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I spent the winter [1859-1860, when he was painting 'Orfée et Euridice'] in the Elysian fields, where I was very happy; you must admit that if painting is a folly, it’s a sweet folly that men should not only forgive but seek out.”
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796–1875) first seen 1875 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Corot told Dumensnil in 1875; as quoted in Corot, Gary Tinterow, Michael Pantazzi, Vincent Pomarède - Galeries nationales du Grand Palais (France), National Gallery of Canada, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)…
“We believe that we can find the end, and that a painting can be finished. The Abstract Expressionists always felt the painting's being finished was very problematical. We'd more readily say that our paintings were finished and say, well, it's either a failure or it's not, instead of saying, well, maybe it's not really finished.”
Frank Stella (1936–2024) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Cited from an interview (1966), as cited in Gregory Battcock (ed.) Minimal Art, a Critical Anthology, Berkeley: University of California Press (1968), p. 157-161
“The culture-its excess-really suited me. I always liked Indian miniature painting much more than Renaissance painting. I didn't see what was so great about Rembrandt or Michelangelo. I liked paintings where there were 10,000 people in the scene and elephants and horses! I liked the carvings on Indian temples so much more than the simple architectural outlines.”
Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty (born 1940) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I try to deal with things that maybe other people haven't thought about, emptiness, making a painting that isn't a painting. For years people have been concerned with what goes on inside the frame. Well maybe there is something going on outside the frame that could be considered an artistic idea.”
Robert Barry (born 1936) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Robert Barry (1968), cited in: Lucy R. Lippard, Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object from 1966 to 1972. New York, Praeger, 1973, p. 40. p. xii
“Value differences in painting always cut in; color differences always go side by side. Laterally. Color differences can illustrate three dimensional form, but using color in terms of hue belongs more properly to painting than modelling with dark and light [as in sculpting] does.”
Kenneth Noland (1924–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I've been amusing myself recently painting the interior of my studio with my friends. Manet is helping me with it [Manet painted Bazille, in front of the easel], and I may send it to the exhibition in Montpellier. This painting has delayed the one ['Scène d'Été'] I am going to do for the [Paris] Salon, but I am working hard and it won't take very long to complete”
Frédéric Bazille (1841–1870) first seen 1870 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to his father, 1 January 1870; in 'Bazille 1992, No. 127, transl. Paula Prokopoff-Giannini, Chicago 1978, p. 182; as quoted in Impressionnism, Gary Tinterow, Henri Loyrette; Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994, p. 3…
“I don't make drips [in her painting] purposely. This drip business is a pile of shit. If I see them, I take them out [of her painting] like cleaning the house.”
Joan Mitchell (1925–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: remark to Irving Sandler (early 1950s); as quoted in Joan Mitchell, Lady Painter, by Patricia Albers, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 3 may 2011, p. 242