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Some quotations concerning ART
In alpha order:Aristotle (384 - 322 BCE)
All art is concerned with coming into being.
We cannot learn without pain.
The end (goal) of art is to figure the hidden meaning of things and not their appearance; for in this profound truth lies their true reality, which does not appear in their external outlines. (Quoted in Malraux, Metamorphosis of the Gods, 1957)
Joseph Conrad (1857 - 1924)
...Art itself may be defined as a single minded attempt to render the highest kind of justice to the visible universe, by bringing to light the truth, manifold and one, underlying its every aspect. (Preface "Children of the Sea")
Camille Corot -"I hope with all my heart that there will be painting in heaven." - Corot's dying words.
Stuart Davis (1894-1964)
I welcome the various Modes de Slop in painting that have prevailed in recent years, and have found them very liberating. Of course, the accumulating sludge from the fall out of this explosive technological operation can produce an alarming nausea at times. I have found the most effective cure for this malaise to be the jazz piano solos recorded from QRS piano-player rolls, cut directly by James P. Johnson, circa 1920.
(ArtUSA Now 1963)
Thomas Eakins (1844-1916)
When asked if he liked the work of John Singer Sargent, he replied, "I think it's a cowardly way to paint." When asked- "but don't you think it's beautiful?" he replied- "oh, I never thought of that." (Quoted by Phil Zuchman at The Art Institute of Philadelphia 1999)
Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all art and science.
(Living Philosophies 1949, vol. 7)
T.S. Elliot (1886 - 1965)
The progress of an artist is a continual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality.
The emotion of art is impersonal. And the poet cannot reach this impersonality without surrendering himself wholly to the work to be done, unless he lives in what is not merely the present, but the present moment of the past, unless he is conscious, not of what is dead, but of what is already living. (Tradition and the Individual Talent - 1917)
Robert Gwathmey (1903-)
Art never grows out of the persuasion of polished eclecticism or the inviting momentum of the bandwagon. (Art USA Now 1963)
Edward Hopper- "My aim in painting has always been the most exact transcription possible of my most intimate impression of nature. If this end is unattainable, so it can be said is perfection in any other ideal of painting or in any other of mankind's activities" - Edward Hopper
Henry James (Jr.) 1843 - 1916)
It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance...and I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of its process. (Letter to H.G. Wells 1915)
Franz Kline (1910-1962)
Artist's live, where dogs would die. (quoted by Murray Dessner at PAFA 1998)
Julian Levi (1900 - 1982)
...never have I subscribed to the doctrine of willful rejection of the world or its visual image. To the non-objectivist this act of impiety may be shockingly impure, but God, I have no desire to be either hollow or sterile.
(ArtUSA Now 1963)
Norman Mailer (1923- )
Try to keep the rebel artist alive in you, no matter how attractive or exhausting the temptation. (Advertisement for Myself on the Way Out - 1959)
Arthur Miller ( 1915- )
When the guns roar, the arts die.
(To Lyndon Johnson 1965)
Henry Miller (1891 -1980)
The task which the artist implicitly sets himself, is to overthrow existing values, to make of the chaos about him an order which is his own, to sow strife and ferment, so that by the emotional release those who are dead may be restored to life.
(Tropic of Cancer 1934)
Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973)
We all know that art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth...
(The Arts 1923)
Sir Herbert Read (1893-1968)
Art is an indecent exposure of the consciousness.
Tolstoy's definition of art is the inverse of the truth; the task of art is to transform not perception into feeling, but feeling into perception.
(Saturday Review 1960)
Raphael Soyer (1899-)
My art is representational by choice....if the art of painting is to survive, it must describe and express people, their lives and times. It must communicate.
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)
Our fears are like dragons, guarding our most precious possessions. (?)
August Rodin (1840-1917)
To the artist, there is never anything ugly in nature. Quoted by Dorothy Dudley in "Forgotten Frontiers" 1932)
John Singer Sargent
A portrait is a painting, in which something is wrong with the mouth.
John Ruskin (1819-1900)
Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together.
The Two Paths -1858-9
I have seen and heard much of cockney impudence before now; but never expected to hear a coxcomb ask 200 guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the public's face.
Letter July 2, 1877 regarding the work of Whistler- resulting in a lawsuit.
George Santayana (1863-1952)
The subject matter of art is life, life as it actually is; but the function of art is to make life better.
(The Life of Reason - 1905-06)
Gertrude Stein (1874-1946)
The first hope of the painter who really feels hopeful about painting, is the hope that the painting will move, that it will live outside its frame.
(Lectures in America -1935)
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)
Art is not pleasure or an amusement; art is a great matter. Art is an organ of human life transmitting our reasonable perception into feeling.
(What is Art? 1898)
Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851)
Sun is God.
(Attributed last words)
Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947)
Art heightens the sense of humanity. It gives an elation to feeling which is supernatural...A million sunsets will not spur us on towards civilization. It requires Art to evoke into consciousness the finite perfections which lie ready for human achievement.
(Adventures of Ideas -1933)
Emile Zola (1840-1902)
Art for me...is a negation of society, an affirmation of the individual, outside of all the rules and all the demands of society.
(Mes Haines 1866)
Compiled by Fred Danziger, who welcomes additions or corrections on the subject, and who neither endorses nor rejects any of the following. Please send contributions of thoughts to me. Thanks.
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