Andrei Tarkovsky: Quotes about art

“Some sort of pressure must exist; the artist exists because the world is not perfect. Art would be useless if the world were perfect, as man wouldn’t look for harmony but would simply live in it. Art is born out of an ill-designed world.”

Andrei Tarkovsky

World , Art , Perfection

“What is art? (…) Like a declaration of love: the consciousness of our dependence on each other. A confession. An unconscious act that none the less reflects the true meaning of life—love and sacrifice.”

Andrei Tarkovsky

Love , Life , Art , Dependency

“I find poetic links, the logic of poetry in cinema, extraordinarily pleasing. They seem to me perfectly appropriate to the potential of cinema as the most truthful and poetic of art forms. Certainly I am more at home with them than with traditional theatrical writing which links images through the linear rigid logical development of plot. That sort of fussily correct way of linking events usually involves arbitrarily forcing them into sequence in obedience to some abstract notion of order. And even when this is not so, even when the plot is governed by the characters, one finds that the links which hold it together rest on a facile interpretation of life's complexities.”

Andrei Tarkovsky book Sculpting in Time

Sculpting in Time (1986)

Life , Truth , Art , Way

“Art is realistic when it strives to express an ethical ideal. Realism is striving for truth, and truth is always beautiful.”

Andrei Tarkovsky book Sculpting in Time

Source: Sculpting in Time (1986), p. 113
Context: Art is realistic when it strives to express an ethical ideal. Realism is striving for truth, and truth is always beautiful. Here the aesthetic coincides with the ethical.

Truth , Beauty , Art

“Art symbolises the meaning of our existence.”

Andrei Tarkovsky book Sculpting in Time

Source: Sculpting in Time (1986), p. 192
Context: Art must must carry man's craving for the ideal, must be an expression of his reaching out towards it; that art must give man hope and faith. And the more hopeless the world in the artist's version, the more clearly perhaps must we see the ideal that stands in opposition — otherwise life becomes impossible! Art symbolises the meaning of our existence.

Art

“Art must must carry man's craving for the ideal, must be an expression of his reaching out towards it; that art must give man hope and faith.”

Andrei Tarkovsky book Sculpting in Time

Source: Sculpting in Time (1986), p. 192
Context: Art must must carry man's craving for the ideal, must be an expression of his reaching out towards it; that art must give man hope and faith. And the more hopeless the world in the artist's version, the more clearly perhaps must we see the ideal that stands in opposition — otherwise life becomes impossible! Art symbolises the meaning of our existence.

Faith , Hope , Art

“Art is born and takes hold wherever there is a timeless and insatiable longing for the spiritual, for the ideal: that longing which draws people to art. Modern art has taken the wrong turn in abandoning the search for the meaning of existence in order to affirm the value of the individual for his own sake.”

Andrei Tarkovsky book Sculpting in Time

Source: Sculpting in Time (1986), p. 38
Context: Art is born and takes hold wherever there is a timeless and insatiable longing for the spiritual, for the ideal: that longing which draws people to art. Modern art has taken the wrong turn in abandoning the search for the meaning of existence in order to affirm the value of the individual for his own sake. What purports to be art begins to looks like an eccentric occupation for suspect characters who maintain that any personalised action is of intrinsic value simply as a display of self-will. But in an artistic creation the personality does not assert itself it serves another, higher and communal idea. The artist is always the servant, and is perpetually trying to pay for the gift that has been given to him as if by a miracle. Modern man, however, does not want to make any sacrifice, even though true affirmation of the self can only be expressed in sacrifice. We are gradually forgetting about this, and at the same time, inevitably, losing all sense of human calling.

People , Art , Search , Drawing

“It is obvious that art cannot teach anyone anything, since in four thousand years humanity has learnt nothing at all.”

Andrei Tarkovsky book Sculpting in Time

Source: Sculpting in Time (1986), p. 50

Art

“The idea of infinity cannot be expressed in words or even described, but it can be apprehended through art, which makes infinity tangible. The absolute is only attainable through faith and in the creative act.”

Andrei Tarkovsky book Sculpting in Time

Source: Sculpting in Time (1986), p. 39

Faith , Art , Idea

“No one component of a film can have any meaning in isolation: it is the film that is the work of art. And we can only talk about its components rather arbitrarily, dividing it up artificially or the sake of theoretical discussion.”

Andrei Tarkovsky book Sculpting in Time

Source: Sculpting in Time (1986), p. 114

Art

“The allotted function of art is not, as is often assumed, to put across ideas, to propagate thoughts, to serve as an example. The aim of art is to prepare a person for death, to plough and harrow his soul, rendering it capable of turning to good.”

Andrei Tarkovsky book Sculpting in Time

Source: Sculpting in Time (1986), p. 42

Death , Art , Soul , Idea

“The whole concept of the avant-garde in art is meaningless. I can see what it means when applied to sport, for instance. But to apply it to art would be to accept the idea of progress in art; and though progress has an obvious place in technology — more perfect machines, capable of carrying out their functions better and more accurately — how can anyone be more advanced in art? How could Thomas Mann be said to be better than Shakespeare?”

Andrei Tarkovsky book Sculpting in Time

Source: Sculpting in Time (1986), p. 97

Art , Idea , Sport , Perfection

“An artist cannot be partially sincere any more than art can be an approximation of beauty.”

Andrei Tarkovsky book Sculpting in Time

Source: Sculpting in Time (1986), p. 47

Beauty , Art , Sincerity

“No one component of a film can have any meaning in isolation: it is the film that is the work of art.”

Andrei Tarkovsky book Sculpting in Time

And we can only talk about its components rather arbitrarily, dividing it up artificially or the sake of theoretical discussion.
Source: Sculpting in Time (1986), p. 114

Art