“The artist who is after success lets himself be influenced by the public. Generally such an artist contributes nothing new, for the public acclaims only what it already knows, what it recognizes.”

—  André Gide

“Characters,” p. 306
Pretexts: Reflections on Literature and Morality (1964)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The artist who is after success lets himself be influenced by the public. Generally such an artist contributes nothing …" by André Gide?
André Gide photo
André Gide74
French novelist and essayist 1869–1951

Related quotes

Sadik Kaceli photo

“English: For his high level of work, a contribute for the Albanian art and for preparing the new generation of artists.”

Sadik Kaceli (1914–2000) Albanian artist

Për nivel të lartë në krijimtari, një kontribut në shquar në artet figurative Shqiptare dhe një ndihmë të pakursyer në përgatitjen e brezave të artistëve të rinj.
Sali Berisha, President of Albania (22-03-1994)

“The superior artist is the one who knows how to be influenced.”

Clement Greenberg (1909–1994) American writer and artist

Influences of Matisse, exhibition catalog essay 1973, Aquavella Gallery NYC: On Henri Matisse
1970s

Henry Adams photo

“An artist, if good for anything, foresees what his public will see; and what his public will see is what he ought to have intended — the measure of his genius. If the public sees more than he himself did, this is his credit; if less, this is his fault. No matter how simple or ignorant we are, we ought to feel a discord or a harmony where the artist meant us to feel it, and when we see a motive, we conclude that other people have seen it before us, and that it must therefore have been intended.”

Henry Adams (1838–1918) journalist, historian, academic, novelist

Mont Saint Michel and Chartres (1904)

Samuel Butler photo

“An artist’s touches are sometimes no more articulate than the barking of a dog who would call attention to something without exactly knowing what. This is as it should be, and he is a great artist who can be depended on not to bark at nothing.”

Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist

Inarticulate Touches
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part IX - A Painter's Views on Painting

Fred Astaire photo

“Astaire really sweat - he toiled. He was a humorless Teutonic man, the opposite of his debonair image in top hat and tails. I liked him because he was an entertainer and an artist. There's a distinction between them. An artist is concerned only with what is acceptable to himself, where an entertainer strives to please the public. Astaire did both. Louis Armstrong was another one.”

Fred Astaire (1899–1987) American dancer, singer, actor, choreographer and television presenter

Artie Shaw on his collaboration with Astaire in Second Chorus (1940) as interviewed in Fantle, Dave and Johnson, Tom. Reel to Real. Badger Books LLC, 2004, p. 304. ISBN 1932542043.

Susan Sontag photo

“One criticizes in others what one recognizes and despises in oneself. For example, an artist who is revolted by another’s ambitiousness.”

Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist

Source: As Consciousness is Harnessed to Flesh: Journals and Notebooks, 1964-1980

Nicholas Serota photo

“For the late twentieth-century museum director there is no more certain prospect for audience acclaim and sponsor success than those Impressionist and Post-impressionist artists who were so reviled a century earlier”

Nicholas Serota (1946) British curator

The Dimbleby Lecture 2000

Federico Fellini photo

“What is an artist? A provincial who finds himself somewhere between a physical reality and a metaphysical one…”

Federico Fellini (1920–1993) Italian filmmaker

"Every Time We Say Goodbye" in Sight and Sound [London] ( June 1991)
Context: What is an artist? A provincial who finds himself somewhere between a physical reality and a metaphysical one... It’s this in-between that I’m calling a province, this frontier country between the tangible world and the intangible one — which is really the realm of the artist.

Kurt Schwitters photo

“Kurt Schwitters is the inventor of Merz and I, and aside of himself, he recognizes no one as a Merz artist or an I artist with highest regards.”

Kurt Schwitters (1887–1948) German artist

1920s
Source: 'Die Blume Anna', a poem of Kurt Schwitters, published in 'Consistent Poetry Art' contribution to 'Magazine G', No. 3, ed. Hans Richter, 1924

Related topics