“I paint my own reality. The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration.”

Last update March 23, 2025. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I paint my own reality. The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my…" by Frida Kahlo?

Frida Kahlo51

Mexican painter 1907–1954

Related quotes

“I painted like that because I wanted to get through to something new - a kind of painting that was my own.”

Georges Seurat (1859–1891) French painter

quote from Seurat, John Russell; Thames & Hudson, London 1965 ISBN 0-500-20032-7
undated quotes

“They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn't. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.”

Frida Kahlo (1907–1954) Mexican painter

Quoted in Time Magazine, "Mexican Autobiography" (27 April 1953)
1946 - 1953
Variant: I don't paint dreams or nightmares, I paint my own reality.

“I paint my own conflicts through the animals.”

Herman Kruyder (1881–1935) Dutch painter

Door de dieren heen schilder ik mijn eigen conflicten.<br><br>Quote of Kruyders, as cited by Benoit Hameleers, on the website of Stichting Sjef Hutsch http://www.stichtingsjefhutsch.nl/nieuws.html <br class="br">undated quotes

“Painting is so stupid, so simple. I paint to get out of the through. I paint my misery.”

Bram van Velde (1895–1981) Dutch painter

1960's, Conversations with Samuel Beckett and Bram van Velde' (1965 - 1969)

“It's only my town (Chagall was born in Vitebsk), mine, which I have rediscovered. I come back to it with emotion. It was at that time that I painted my Vitebsk series of 1914. (Chagall couldn't go back to Paris because of the outbreak of the first World War in 1914) I painted everything that met my eyes. I painted at my window; I never walked down the street without my box of paint.”

Marc Chagall (1887–1985) French artist and painter

Quote in Marc Chagall - the Russian years 1906 – 1922, editor Christoph Vitali, exhibition catalogue, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, 1991, p. 31
1920's, My life (1922)

“I dream my painting, and then I paint my dream.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

As quoted in Marry Your Muse: Making a Lasting Commitment to Your Creativity (1997) by Jan Phillips, p. 176
Undated

“I don't paint things. I only paint the differences between things.”

Henri Matisse (1869–1954) French artist

Je ne peins pas les choses. Je ne peins que les différences entre les choses.
"Henri Matisse: contre vents et marées : peinture et livres illustrés de 1939 à 1943"
1930s

“When I am in my painting, I am not aware of what I'm doing. It is only after a short of 'get acquainted' period that I see what I have been about. I have no fears about making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well.”

Jackson Pollock (1912–1956) American artist

In 'Possibilities', Vol. 1, no 1, winter 1947-48, p. 79; as quoted in Jackson Pollock (1983) by Elizabeth Frank, p. 68
1940's

“I deal with painting as I deal with things, I paint a window just as I look out of a window. If an open window looks wrong in a picture, I draw the curtain and shut it, just as I would in my own room. In painting, as in life, you must act directly.”

Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer

Herschel Browning Chip (1968, p. 271).
1930s, "Conversations avec Picasso," 1934–35

“I got tired of other's people painting and began to make my own paintings. I found, however, that I not only got tired of looking at my own paintings but that I also didn't like painting them at all. The painterly problems of what to put here and there and how to do it to make it go with what was already there, became more and more difficult and the solutions more and more unsatisfactory. Until finally it became obvious that there had to be a better way.”

Frank Stella (1936) American artist

Source: Quotes, 1960 - 1970, The Pratt lecture (1960), p. 114

“I paint my own reality. The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Frida Kahlo51

Related quotes

Related topics