“If within the last century art conceived as an autonomous activity has come to be invested with an unprecedented stature—the nearest thing to a sacramental human activity acknowledged by secular society—it is because one of the tasks art has assumed is making forays into and taking up positions on the frontiers of consciousness (often very dangerous to the artist as a person) and reporting back what’s there.”
“The Pornographic Imagination,” p. 45
Styles of Radical Will (1966)
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Susan Sontag 168
American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist 1933–2004Related quotes
“Ai Weiwei’s Year of Living Dangerously.” Art in America, September 2009, 28.
2000-09, 2009
Quote, 1937; in Gabo's letter to Herbert Read; cited in: Cyril Connolly (1944) Horizon: a review of literature and art. Vol 9-10. p. 58
1936 - 1977
“Art is the supreme task and the truly metaphysical activity in this life…”
Diesen Ernsthaften diene zur Belehrung, dass ich von der Kunst als der höchsten Aufgabe und der eigentlich metaphysischen Thätigkeit dieses Lebens im Sinne des Mannes überzeugt bin, dem ich hier, als meinem erhabenen Vorkämpfer auf dieser Bahn, diese Schrift gewidmet haben will.
"Preface to Richard Wagner", p. 13
The Birth of Tragedy (1872)
Source: Outlines of a Philosophy of Art, 1925, p. 7
“Mathematical activity has taken the forms of a science, a philosophy and an art.”
100 Years of Mathematics: a Personal Viewpoint (1981)