ART QUOTES VIII

quotations about art

Art quote

It used to happen, and still happens, to me to take no pleasure in a work of art at the first sight of it, because it is too much for me; but if I suspect any merit in it, I try to get at it; and then I never fail to make the most gratifying discoveries--to find new qualities in the work itself and new faculties in myself.

JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe

Tags: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


All things that are living are expression and therefore part of the inherent symbology of life. Art, therefore, that is encumbered with excessive symbolism is extraneous, and from my point of view, useless art. Anyone who understands life needs no handbook of poetry or philosophy to tell him what it is.

MARSDEN HARTLEY

Adventures in Art

Tags: Marsden Hartley, life


Art reminds us that in fact the world always exceeds our grasp and perception.

JEREMY BEGBIE

Resounding Truth: Christian Wisdom in the World of Music

Tags: Jeremy Begbie


Some people are born to make great art and others are born to appreciate it.... It's a kind of talent in itself, to be an audience, whether you are a spectator in the gallery or you are listening to the voice of the world's greatest soprano. Not everyone can be an artist. There have to be those who witness the art, who love and appreciate what they have been privileged to see.

ANN PATCHETT

Bel Canto

Tags: Ann Patchett


Art is a vehicle that allows us to transcend linear time, to travel backward and forward into personal and transpersonal history, into possibilities that weren't realized and those that might be.

PAT B. ALLEN

introduction, Art Is a Spiritual Path

Tags: Pat B. Allen


The history of art is the history of revivals.

SAMUEL BUTLER

Note Books

Tags: Samuel Butler


It is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and as if by magic, we see a new meaning in it.

ANAIS NIN

attributed, The Wordsworth Dictionary of Quotations

Tags: Anais Nin, perception


That art is best which suggests most.

AUSTIN O'MALLEY

Keystones of Thought

Tags: Austin O'Malley


Art is a way of knowing what it is we actually believe.

PAT. B. ALLEN

Art Is a Way of Knowing

Tags: Pat B. Allen, belief


Truth as philosophy is a gas; as art, it is visible steam.

AUSTIN O'MALLEY

Keystones of Thought

Tags: Austin O'Malley, truth


Art functions pyramidally: all new achievements are based on the utilization of everything that has been accumulated below, at the foundations of the pyramid. Revolutions do not occur here; this field, more than any other, is governed by evolution. And we must know what has been done before us in the field of verbal art. This does not mean that you must follow in trodden paths: you must contribute something of your own. A work of art is of value only when it is original, both in content and in form. But in order to leap upward, it is necessary to take off from the ground. It is essential that there be a ground.

YEVGENY ZAMYATIN

The Psychology of Creative Work

Tags: Yevgeny Zamyatin, originality


Life is art's rival and vice versa.

WYNDHAM LEWIS

Tarr

Tags: Wyndham Lewis


Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.

BERTOLT BRECHT

attributed, Decade of Protest

Tags: Bertolt Brecht, reality


Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.

THOMAS MERTON

No Man Is an Island

Tags: Thomas Merton


The function of the artist is to provide what life does not.

TOM ROBBINS

Another Roadside Attraction

Tags: Tom Robbins, life


I want to meet a guy named Art. I'd take him to a museum, hang him on the wall, criticize him, and leave.

JAROD KINTZ

I Want

Tags: funny


Only lifeless mechanisms move along faultlessly straight lines and compass circles. In art the surest way to destroy is to canonize one given form and one philosophy: that which is canonized quickly dies of obesity, of entropy.

YEVGENY ZAMYATIN

The New Russian Prose

Tags: Yevgeny Zamyatin


There was a lot of time between early artists doing cave painting and the Sistine Chapel and more time until the first art museum was created. During this time and until the development of the press, not a lot was written about art, yet artists persevered and they were probably more appreciated.

BEN PERRONE

"Freedom to create art is a wonderful thing", Buffalo News, March 22, 2016


Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art.

TOM STOPPARD

"Artist Descending a Staircase"

Tags: Tom Stoppard, imagination


Art is the method of levitation, in order to separate one's self from enslavement by the earth.

ANAIS NIN

The Journals of Anais Nin

Tags: Anais Nin