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Art

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“Basically fine arts include painting, drawing and sculpture. But applied arts involve functional arts, the dimensions of commercial arts.”
Kunle Adewale (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The one thing to say about art is that it is one thing. Art is art-as-art and everything else is everything else. Art as art is nothing but art. Art is not what is not art.”
Ad Reinhardt (1913–1967) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote of Ad Reinhardt (1963); as cited in: Joseph Kosuth, (1969), "Art after Philosophy
“Art excludes the unnecessary. Frank Stella has found it necessary to paint stripes. There is nothing else in his painting. Stella is not interested in expression or sensitivity. He is interested in the necessity of painting. Symbols are counters passed among people. Frank Stella's painting is not symbolic. His stripes are the paths of brush on canvas. These path leads only into painting.”
Carl Andre (1935–2024) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: from a typed note of Andre: 'Preface to Stripe Painting', 28 September 1959; taken from a digital copy, in American Archive of Art: Smithsonian Institute
“Minimal art went nowhere. Conceptual art became the liberating idea that gave the art of the next 40 years its real impetus. All of the significant art of today stems from Conceptual art. This includes the art of installation, political, feminist and socially directed art. The other great development has been in photography, but that too was influenced by Conceptual art.”
Sol LeWitt (1928–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Works of art are analytic propositions. That is, if viewed within their context – as art – they provide no information whatsoever about any matter of fact. A work of art is a tautology in that it is a presentation of the artist’s intention, that is, he is saying that that particular work of art is art, which means, is a definition of art.”
Joseph Kosuth (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Painting is poetry which is seen and not heard, and poetry is a painting which is heard but not seen. These two arts, you may call them both either poetry or painting, have here interchanged the senses by which they penetrate to the intellect.”
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) said by 1519 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Treatise on Painting (1651); "The Paragone"; compiled by Francesco Melzi prior to 1542, first published as Trattato della pittura by Raffaelo du Fresne (1651)
“I think art is personal to each artist, and so to me it is what my art always has been about. But that’s my choice as an artist. I don’t believe art necessarily has to be any one thing. In fact, if we all felt inclined to have to do that, I think it would be a disaster for art.”
Maya Lin (born 1959) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Q. & A. | Maya Lin on Saving the Planet Through Art" in The New York Times Magazine (3 July 2014)
“In my painting, negative space is never arbitrary. (I believe lithographs to be colored marks printed on a ground – the paper and the measure of the ground and the marks are to be considered of equal importance). In my painting, the painting is the subject rather than the subject the painting.”
Ellsworth Kelly (1923–2015) first seen 1969 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. unknown : 'Notes from 1969'
“To defend painting: One has to believe in what one is doing, one has to commit oneself inwardly, in order to do painting. Once obsessed, one ultimately carries it to the point of believing that one might change human beings through painting. But if one lacks this passionate commitment, there is nothing left to do. Then it is best to leave it alone. For basically painting is pure idiocy.”
Gerhard Richter (born 1932) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Painting has nothing to do with thinking, because in painting thinking is painting. Thinking is language – record-keeping – and has to take place before and after. Einstein did not think when he was calculating: he calculated – producing the next equation in reaction to the one that went before – just as in painting one form is a response to another and so on.”
Gerhard Richter (born 1932) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I am designing a stained glass window I am painting; when I am drawing a drawing, I am painting; when I am making the cartoon for a tapestry, I am painting; and when I am listening to music I am painting. It is the centre of everything that I do.”
Brian Clarke (1953–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The art of 'figuring' or 'picturing' is not a fine art. An artist who is lobbying as a 'creature of circumstances' or log rolling as a 'victim of fate' is not a fine master artist. No one ever forces an artist to be pure.”
Ad Reinhardt (1913–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Even before I made money, I was an artist. As an artist, I've always done art, and I do as much as I can. But when my daughter was born, I had to make money. Then I started being a commercial artist, someone who would make money from the art.”
Samthing Soweto (born 1989) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Great art – or good art – is when you look at it, experience it and it stays in your mind. I don't think conceptual art and traditional art are all that different. There's boring conceptual art and there's boring traditional art. Great art is if you can't stop thinking about it, then it becomes a memory.”
Damien Hirst (born 1965) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In: Elizabeth Day Damien Hirst: 'Art is childish and childlike, The Guardian, 26 September 2010
“Firebugs dragging their gasoline bottles Are approaching the Academy of Arts, with a grin. And so, instead of embracing them, Let us demand the freedom of the elbow To knock the bottles out of their filthy hands. Even the most blockheaded bureaucrat, Provided he loves peace, Is a greater lover of the arts Than any so-called art-lover Who loves the arts of war.”
Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Freedom for Whom", as translated in Brecht on Brecht : An Improvisation (1967) by George Tabori, p. 18
“'Now, it's just occurred to me that we're missing something crucial. Ah, yes, an artist! Bugg, have we a court artist? We need an artist! Find us an artist! Nobody move!'”
Steven Erikson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I don't agree that we should dismiss certain art forms and we should create a hierarchy. That's what the academies in the 18th century really did. They said painting and sculpture is at the top, and embroidery and craft like decorative arts is at the bottom. And what did women have access to? Decorative arts and craft.”
Katy Hessel (born 1994) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“After all, what is art? Art is the creative process and it goes through all fields. Einstein’s theory of relativity — now that is a work of art! Einstein was more of an artist in physics than on his violin. Art is this: art is the solution of a problem which cannot be expressed explicitly until it is solved.”
Piet Hein (1905–1996) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Man Creates Art Creates Man (1973) by Duane Preble, p. 14
“Before man was aware of art he was aware of himself. Awareness of the person is, then, the first art. In performance art the figure of the artist is the tool for the art. It is the art.”
Gregory Battcock (1937–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The cinema is not an art which films life: the cinema is something between art and life. Unlike painting and literature, the cinema both gives to life and takes from it, and I try to render this concept in my films. Literature and painting both exist as art from the very start; the cinema doesn’t.”
Jean-Luc Godard (1930–2022) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in: Richard Roud, Godard, introduction (1970)
“Art is the illusion of disorientation, the illusion of liberty, the illusion of presence, the illusion of the sacred, the illusion of Nature. ... Not the painting of Buren, Mosset, Parmentier or Toroni.... Art is a distraction, art is false. Painting begins with Buren, Mosset, Parmentier, Toroni.”
Daniel Buren (born 1938) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Daniel Buren, , and , at the Paris Biennale in October 1967. Translated and cited in: Lucy R. Lippard, Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object from 1966 to 1972, New York: Praeger, (1973), p. 30.
“Well, art is not communist -- not bourgeois either It's no club and has no party line Not wild nights make an artist -- not drugs or manifestos It's art -- HA HA -- that's no secret The one who makes art -- he's the artist..”
Kurt Schwitters (1887–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is not necessary to subscribe to the tiresome conception of the artist as rampaging Bohemian to understand that the activity of painting is socially useless, or at best occupies a dubious position...In the remote purity of his solitariness, where the work of art is made, the artist is supremely the anti-social creature.”
Patrick Swift (1927–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For to me, this word Art, in its largest sense, signifies those who take pleasure in their work... Artist-carpenters who adjust with joy dovetails and mortises; artist-masons who handle lovingly their trowels; artist-cab drivers, proud of treating their horses humanely-what an ideal state of society that would be.”
Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) said by 1917 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The artist must learn the difference between the appearance of an object and the interpretation of this object through his medium. The artist must create a spark before he can make a fire and before art is born, the artist must be ready to be consumed by the fire of his own creation.”
Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) said by 1917 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Attributed to Rodin in: Southwestern Art Vol. 6 (1977). p. 20; Partly cited in: A Toolbox for Humanity: More Than 9000 Years of Thought (2004) by Lloyd Albert Johnson, p. 7
“The only duty an artist has is in the quality of the art. There is no moral obligation to denounce. An artist confronted with a tremendous injustice sometimes feels inclined to say something. Denouncing the situation is the artist’s choice.”
Fernando Botero (1932–2023) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On whether an artist should paint about injustices in “Interview With Fernando Botero” in HuffPost (2017 Dec 6)
“Two things make the future real, the artist's imagination and the worker's hope. Fascism destroys both. Therefore the artist and the worker must unite to destroy Fascism. The Fascist artist is a traitor, the neutral is already dead. Art and anti-Fascism are synonymous.”
John Langdon-Davies (1897–1971) said by 1971 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is a cliché that the artist is the person who best reflects his time. I am not ready to accept that definition of the artist, nor the idea that the art is best which best reflects its time. The function of the artist is a little more than to reflect; he has to refract, to set things off in another direction.”
Ben Shahn (1898–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is no such thing as abstract art, or else all art is abstract, which amounts to the same thing. Abstract art no more exists than does curved art yellow art or green art.”
Jean Dubuffet (1901–1985) said by 1985 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of the things near and dear to me is art therapy. Even as an art teacher and someone very involved in the arts, I never knew what art therapy even was. These men and women go to graduate school and they actually are therapists that use art, especially at Riley, they’re making such a difference, so I’m looking forward to that.”
Karen Pence (born 1957) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Karen Pence focuses on moving family forward amid hoopla (January 20, 2017)
“The art of dancing stands at the source of all the arts that express themselves first in the human person. The art of building, or architecture, is the beginning of all the arts that lie outside the person; and in the end they unite.”
Havelock Ellis (1859–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Weren’t there naive arts and sophisticated arts? And corrupt arts as well? And might that not be true of the sciences too? Could chemistry be more corrupt than botany? But that wasn’t so. It was the uses, the ends…”
Walter Tevis (1928–1984) said by 1984 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think the most important is when I was young, I learnt martial arts, that is my special key. I can use my unique martial arts in the film. But after a few years, I really want to do something different... like using martial arts to talk about peace.”
Jet Li (born 1963) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Jet Li Interview Transcript in CNN (January 29, 2003)
“It was my dream! I wanted to know what exactly martial arts is. When you look at martial arts films, the later ones became more and more exaggerated. It’s like, wow, is martial arts only a show?”
Wong Kar-wai (born 1958) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Demonstrative Wong Kar Wai" in Interview Magazine (22 August 2013)
“The Art Perspective is necessary to all Arts, where there is any occasion for Designing... but it is more particularly necessary to the Art Painting...”
Brook Taylor (1685–1732) said by 1732 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The free placement of the means of expression is a privilege enjoyed exclusively by painting [different opinion with Theo van Doesburg]] ]. The sister arts, sculpture and architecture, are more restricted in this respect. The other arts enjoy even less scope in their employment of the means of expression.”
Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) first seen 1917 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote of Mondrian, c. Oct. 1917; as cited in Letters of the great artists, Richard Friedenthal, Thames and Hudson, London, 1963 (transl. Daphne Woodward), p. 237
“Art is not for the personal satisfaction of one or the other, but art wants to return all what’s in life... Art wants to give back everything what’s in our lives. The more comprehensive the artist stands in life the more powerful his work will speak, and therefore a work of art is a measure of the mental size of his creator.”
Bram van Velde (1895–1981) first seen 1926 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to H. E. Kramer, 25-10-1926, as quoted in: Bram van Velde, A Tribute, Municipal Museum De Lakenhal Leiden, Municipal Museum Schiedam, Museum de Wieger, Deurne 1994, p. 44 (English translation: Charlotte Burgmans)
“I cannot teach my art, nor the art of any school whatever, since I deny that art can be taught, or, in other words, I maintain that art is completely individual, and is, for each artist, nothing but the talent issuing from his own inspiration and his own studies of tradition.”
Gustave Courbet (1819–1877) said by 1877 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every artist works within a tradition. I am a native of Russia. My Russian soul has always been close to the art of old Russia, the Russian icons, Byzantine art, the mosaics in Ravenna, Venice, Rome, and to Romanesque art. All these artworks produced a religious vibration in my soul, as I sensed in them a deep spiritual language. This art was my tradition.”
Alexej von Jawlensky (1864–1941) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: quote from his letter to the National Socialist State Cultural administration, 1939; Jawlensky asked permission to exhibit his painting art, which was turned down by the Nazi regime
“Art is my religion and my work is my praise. I know little else and I am aware of the lack of balance between my work and other aspects of life but I care little. Everything about me is art and I breathe art. I could be nothing but an artist. I am extremely passionate about what I do. The opportunity the Art industry gives is ceaseless.”
Ndidi Dike (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everybody has called Pop Art 'American' painting, but it's actually industrial painting. America was hit by industrialism and capitalism harder and sooner and its values see more askew.. .I think the meaning of my work is that it’s industrial; it’s what all the world will soon become. Europe will be the same way, soon, so it [Pop Art] won’t be American; it will be universal.”
Roy Lichtenstein (1923–1997) said by 1997 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I see the future development of painting taking place in workshops.. ..not in any holy temple of the arts. Painting is manual labor, no different from any other. It can be done well or poorly.”
George Grosz (1893–1959) said by 1959 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted by William Bolcom, in The End of the Mannerist Century / quoted in Art of the 20th Century, Part 1, Karl Ruhrberg, Klaus Honnef, Manfred Schneckenburger, Christiane Fricke; publisher: Taschen 2000, p. 190
“This year long project is funded from the U.S. Consulate Small Grant 2017. To commemorate thirteen years of community service, we had a series of free workshops from 13-17 December, 2017 based on silk painting, tie and dye, general crafts, painting and ceramics for adults and children. Come Next year, we will host students of tertiary education various arts, crafts and history classes.”
Peju Layiwola (born 1967) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The idea of research has often made painting go astray, and made the artist lose himself in mental lucubrations. Perhaps this has been the principal fault of modern art. The spirit of research has poisoned those who have not fully understood all the positive and conclusive elements in modern art and has made them attempt to paint the invisible and, therefore, the unpaintable.”
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We have named PROUN [the art, stepping over from painting to architecture] a station on the path to the construction of the new form.. .From being a simple depicter the artist becomes a creator (builder) of forms for a new world — the world of objectivity. This does not mean the creation of a rivalry with the engineer. Art has not yet crossed paths with science.”
El Lissitsky (1890–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The pure, frank sentiments we hold in our hearts are the only truthful sources of art. A painting which does not take its inspiration from the heart is nothing more than futile juggling. All authentic art is conceived at a sacred moment and nourished in a blessed hour; an inner impulse creates it, often without the artist being aware of it.”
Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840) said by 1840 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote in 'Culture: Caspar D. Friedrich and the Wasteland', by Gjermund E. Jansen in Bits of News (3 March 2005)
“A great artist is born from a profound knowledge of the tradition and problems of painting. However, there are many works in which freshness and audacity surprise, as can be seen in popular art and in certain examples of modern art.”
Fernando Botero (1932–2023) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the influence of culture on an artist in “Interview With Fernando Botero” in HuffPost (2017 Dec 6)
“A painting grows like a plant. Use all colours, all shapes. Everything that attracts and excites me is a part of me. Painting is about proportions, relationships which breathe life. "Painting is a harmony which runs parallel to nature".”
Stefan Szczesny (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What is the secret behind the emotional effect of great works of painting? What laws govern their beauty? Delacroix said that being a feast for the eyes is the prime merit of a good painting. I seek the timeless, the quintessential in painting.”
Stefan Szczesny (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Well, painting today certainly seems very vibrant, very alive, very exiting. Five or six of my contemporaries around New York are doing very vital work, and the direction that painting seems to be taken here – is – away from the easel – into some sort, some kind of wall, wall painting...”
Jackson Pollock (1912–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source