Man Ray: Inspiration

Man Ray was American artist and photographer. Explore interesting quotes on inspiration.
Man Ray: 36   quotes 4   likes

“Personally, I have always preferred inspiration to information.”

Man Ray

As quoted in Photographers on Photography : A Critical Anthology (1966) by Nathan Lyons, p. 80 <!-- "Man Ray Photographs 1920-1934" MAN RAY, Modern Photography, November 1957, p. 85. THE AGE OF LIGHT 1934 Preface to Man Ray Photographs 1920-1934, Paris, Hartford, James T. Soby ??? -->
Context: Of course, there will always be those who look only at technique, who ask "how", while others of a more curious nature will ask "why". Personally, I have always preferred inspiration to information.

Personality

“Inspiration then information; each validates the other.”

Man Ray

"Originals Graphics Multiples" (1973) <!-- as quoted in Man Ray : American Artist (1988) by Neil Baldwin, p. 323 -->
Context: An original is a creation motivated by desire.
Any reproduction of an original is motivated by necessity.
The original is the result of an automatic process, the reproduction, of a mechanical process. In other words: Inspiration then information; each validates the other.
All other considerations are beyond the scope of these statements.
It is marvelous that we are the only species that creates gratuitous forms. To create is divine, to reproduce is human.

“Throughout time painting has alternately been put to the service of the Church, the State, arms, individual patronage, scientific phenomena, anecdote and decoration … all the marvelous works that have been painted, whatever the sources of inspiration, still live for us because of absolute qualities they possess in common.”

Man Ray

As quoted in "American Modernists in Painting take the Public into their Confidence" in Current Opinion Vol LX, No. 5 (May 1916), p. 351
Context: Throughout time painting has alternately been put to the service of the Church, the State, arms, individual patronage, scientific phenomena, anecdote and decoration … all the marvelous works that have been painted, whatever the sources of inspiration, still live for us because of absolute qualities they possess in common. The creative force and the expressiveness of painting reside materially in the colour and texture of pigments, in the possibilities of form invention and organisation, and in the flat plane on which these elements are brought into play.

Time , Painting

“Throughout time painting has alternately been put to the service of the Church, the State, arms, individual patronage, scientific phenomena, anecdote and decoration … all the marvelous works that have been painted, whatever the sources of inspiration, still live for us because of absolute qualities they possess in common. The creative force and the expressiveness of painting reside materially in the colour and texture of pigments, in the possibilities of form invention and organisation, and in the flat plane on which these elements are brought into play.”

Man Ray

As quoted in "American Modernists in Painting take the Public into their Confidence" in Current Opinion Vol LX, No. 5 (May 1916), p. 351

Time , Painting