Quotes about art page 16
Robert Barry (1936) American artist
Robert Barry (1980) in: Alexander Alberro (2003). Conceptual Art and the Politics of Publicity. Alberro noted: "Barry has since discussed the way in which this painting accented the structural support..."
Madonna (1958) American singer, songwriter, and actress
Aperture Magazine 1999 http://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-interviews-articles/aperture-magazine-summer-1999
B.K.S. Iyengar (1918–2014) Indian yoga teacher and scholar
Source: BKS Iyengar – obituary http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11045993/BKS-Iyengar-obituary.html, The Telegraph, 20 August 2014
Pauline Kael (1919–2001) American film critic
"Replying to Listeners" http://www.paulrossen.com/paulinekael/replylisteners.html, broadcast on KPFA (January 1963).
Henri Fantin-Latour (1836–1904) painter from France
quote from a letter of Fantin-Latour, Paris, 26 June 1859, to James Whistler in London; from The Correspondence of James McNeill Whistler - Repository: Glasgow University Library http://www.whistler.arts.gla.ac.uk/correspondence/people/display/?cid=1073&nameid=Fantin_Latour_IH&sr=0&rs=1&surname=Fantin-latour&firstname= - System Number: 01073; Call Number: MS Whistler F 4.
Joe Lewis (artist) (1953) American photographer
Walter Robinson. " Joe Lewis: Clairvoynace http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/robinson/robinson8-16-07.asp" at artnet.com, 2015.
Andy Goldsworthy (1956) British sculptor and photographer
He's got the whole world in his hands, The Telegraph (24 March 2007)
Paul Klee (1879–1940) German Swiss painter
Quote (June 1902), as cited in Artists on Art, from the 14th – 20th centuries, ed. Robert Goldwater and Marco Treves; Pantheon Books, 1972, London, p. 443
1895 - 1902
H. Havelock Ellis (1859–1939) British physician, writer, and social reformer
Source: The Dance of Life http://www.gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300671.txt (1923), Ch. 2
Sol LeWitt (1928–2007) American artist
Source: Quotes of Sol Lewitt, "Paragraphs on Conceptual Art," 1967, p. 80. Cited in: Diane Waldman. Carl Andre https://archive.org/stream/carlandre00wald#page/7/mode/1up. Published 1970 by Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. p. 7
“Slavery discourages arts and manufactures.”
George Mason (1725–1792) American delegate from Virginia to the U.S. Constitutional Convention
August 22
Debates in the Federal Convention (1787)
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876–1944) Italian poet and editor, founder of the Futurist movement
quote from 'Guerra sola igiene del mundo', in Edizione Futuriste di Poesia', Milan 1915; as quoted in Futurism, ed. Didier Ottinger; Centre Pompidou / 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2008, p. 21
1910's
Henry Morgenthau, Sr. (1856–1946) American diplomat
I was sent to Athens http://www.hri.org/docs/Morgenthau/
Ernest Flagg (1857–1947) American architect
Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922)
Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) 18th President of the United States
Statement to John Hill Brinton, at the start of his Tennessee River Campaign, early 1862, as quoted in Personal Memoirs of John H. Brinton, Major and Surgeon U.S.V., 1861-1865 (1914) by John Hill Brinton, p. 239.
1860s
“Art is not a study of positive reality, it is the seeking for ideal truth.”
George Sand book La Mare au diable
L'art n'est pas une étude de la réalité positive; c'est une recherche de la vérité idéale.
La Mare au Diable, ch. 1 (1851); Frank Hunter Potter (trans.) The Haunted Pool (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1895) p. 15
Alexej von Jawlensky (1864–1941) Russian painter
from: 'Lebenserinnerungen', 1938
Source: 1936 - 1941, Life Memories' (1938), p. 20
Gerhard Richter (1932) German visual artist, born 1932
Notes, 1988; as cited on collected quotes on the website of Gerhard Richter: 'on Art' https://www.gerhard-richter.com/en/quotes/art-1 <br class="br">1980's
René Daumal (1908–1944) French poet and writer
Vol. 2, Essais et Notes
The Lie of the Truth (1938)
“In trying to be perfect, he perfected the art of anonymity.”
Dejan Stojanovic (1959) poet, writer, and businessman
Nowhere http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/nowhere-2/ <br class="br">From the poems written in English
Charles Wesley (1707–1788) English Methodist and hymn writer
Osborn G (1868), "The poetical works of John and Charles Wesley. Vol 4.", London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office. Page 219, at archive.org. https://archive.org/details/poeticalworksofj04wesl
“Art is the only power to free humankind from all repression.”
Joseph Beuys (1921–1986) German visual artist
Source: 1970's, Joseph Beuys... Public Dialogue' 1974, p. 5
Josef Albers (1888–1976) German-American artist and educator
Homage to the square' (1964), Oral history interview with Josef Albers' (1968)
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) American artist
1980 - 2000, The Skowhegan Lecture', 1987
Jean Dubuffet book Prospectus et tous écrits suivants
As quoted in Jean Dubuffet, Works, writings Interviews, ed. Valerie da Costa and Fabrice Hergott; Ediciones Polígrafa, Barcelona 2006, p. 14
1960-70's, Prospectus et tous écrits suivants, 1967
Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) German anti-Nazi theologian and Lutheran pastor
Statement on his admiration of the Eastern Orthodox traditions (1982), as quoted in Martin Niemöller, 1892-1984 (1984) by James Bentley, p. 207
Isaac Barrow (1630–1677) English Christian theologian, and mathematician
Source: Mathematical Lectures (1734), pp. 26-27
As quoted in the "Translator's Introduction" to The Deer and the Cauldron: A Martial Arts Novel, Book 1, trans. John Minford (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1997), p. xi
James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) American-born, British-based artist
Propositions, 2
also in a letter to 'The World', London 22 Mai, 1878; as quoted in Letters of the great artists – from Blake to Pollock, Richard Friedenthal, Thames and Hudson, London, 1963, p. 186
1870 - 1903, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies' (1890)
Adolph Gottlieb (1903–1974) American artist
Gottlieb's comment on the attacks on artistic freedom in the United States, 1948
Quote from Gottlieb's lecture at Forum: the Artist Speaks, museum of Modern Art, New York, May 5, 1948.
1940s
Charles Rosen (1927–2012) American pianist and writer on music
Source: The Romantic Generation (1995), Ch. 2 : Fragments
Kazimir Malevich (1879–1935) Russian and Soviet artist of polish descent
As quoted in Artists on Art; from the 14th – 20th centuries, ed. by Robert Goldwater and Marco Treves; Pantheon Books, 1972, London, p. 453
1921 - 1930
Hans Haacke (1936) conceptual political artist
1990s, Portraits: Talking with Artists at the Met, the Modern, the Louvre, and Elsewhere, 1998
Yasunari Kawabata (1899–1972) Japanese author, Nobel Prize winner
Japan, the Beautiful and Myself (1969)
Isaac Watts (1674–1748) English hymnwriter, theologian and logician
Song 22: "Against Pride in Clothes".
1710s, Divine Songs Attempted in the Easy Language of Children (1715)
William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) British Liberal politician and prime minister of the United Kingdom
An Examination of the official reply of the Neapolitan Government (London: John Murray, 1952), p. 50.
1850s
Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) French sculptor
In; Victor Frisch, Joseph Twadell Shipley (1939). Auguste Rodin. p. 203: About the act of creation.
1900s-1940s
“Diplomacy, n. The patriotic art of lying for one's country.”
Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary
The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
Kenneth Clark (1903–1983) Art historian, broadcaster and museum director
Source: The Nude: A Study in Ideal Form (1951), Ch. 1: The Naked and the Nude
Raja Ravi Varma (1848–1906) Indian painter
Varma spoke on the occasion of the exhibition of his painting of the Sabine Woman who were supposed to have inspired him .[Mitter, Partha, Art and Nationalism in Colonial India, 1850-1922: Occidental Orientations, http://books.google.com/books?id=9mRTtkri8E0C&pg=PA406, 1994, Cambridge University Press, 978-0-521-44354-8, 411]
David Hume book A Treatise of Human Nature
Part 4, Section 5
A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40), Book 1: Of the understanding
Jim Ede (1895–1990) art collector
Introduction,In Engrave Glass:David Peace,Cambridge 1973.
Marcelle Ferron (1924–2001) Canadian artist
Original in French: Mon propos a toujours été modeste, je voulais transformer ce mariage de raison en un mariage d'amour. <br class="br">Cited at : Ferron, Marcelle; Prix Paul-Émile-Borduas 1983; Catégorie : Culturelle http://www.prixduquebec.gouv.qc.ca/recherche/desclaureat.php?noLaureat=183 at prixduquebec.gouv.qc.ca, 2012-10-29
Louis Althusser book Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays
Source: Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays (1968), "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses", p. 96
Theo van Doesburg (1883–1931) Dutch architect, painter, draughtsman and writer
Quote from Van Doesburg's article: 'Is a Universal Plastic Notion Possible Today?', as cited in 'Bouwkundig weekblad' [a Dutch architectural magazine], XLI 39, 1920, pp. 230–231
this quote of Theo van Doesburg is one of his earliest Dada expressions
1920 – 1926
J. R. Partington (1886–1965) British chemist
A Short History of Chemistry (1937)
“Life isn't long enough for love and art.”
W. Somerset Maugham book The Moon and Sixpence
Source: The Moon and Sixpence (1919), Ch. 21, p. 80
Ossip Zadkine (1890–1967) French sculptor
quote, New York, early 1944; as cited in: Artists on Art – from the 14th – 20th centuries, ed. Robert Goldwater and Marco Treves; Pantheon Books, 1972, London, p. 430
1940 - 1960
Robert Ardrey book Plays of Three Decades
Plays of Three Decades: Thunder Rock / Jeb / Shadow of Heroes (1968)
David Medalla (1942) Filipino artist
Source: Adam Nankervis, " A Stitch in time http://moussemagazine.it/articolo.mm?id=707," in: Mousse Magazine.it, Issue 29, 2015
James Macpherson (1736–1796) Scottish writer, poet, translator, and politician
"The Songs of Selma"
The Poems of Ossian
Paul Klee (1879–1940) German Swiss painter
quote of Paul Klee from the text Exact experiments in the realm of art, 1928; as quoted in 'Klee & Kandinsky', 2015 exhibition text, Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau Munich, 2015-2016 https://www.zpk.org/en/exhibitions/review_0/2015/klee-kandinsky-969.html <br class="br">1921 - 1930
Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel (1772–1829) German poet, critic and scholar
Nicht in die politische Welt verschleudere du Glauben und Liebe, aber in der göttlichen Welt der Wissenschaft und der Kunst opfre dein Innerstes in den heiligen Feuerstrom ewiger Bildung.
“Ideas,” Lucinde and the Fragments, P. Firchow, trans. (1991), § 106
Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) Peintre Néerlandais
In 'Neo-Plasticism: Home – Street – City', Piet Mondriaan, 'i 10', Jan. 1927
1920's
Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) French painter and sculptor
long quote from Duchamp's letter to his sister Suzanne Duchamp, New York, c. 15 Jan. 1916; as quoted in The Duchamp Book, ed. Gavin Parkinson, Tate Publishing, London 2008 pp. 157-158
1915 - 1925
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
1920s, Viereck interview (1929)
Dana Gioia (1950) American writer
9-10
Essays, Can Poetry Matter? (1991), Poetry as Enchantment (2015)
William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist
Source: 1800s, Jerusalem The Emanation of The Giant Albion (c. 1803–1820), Ch. 3, plate 55, line 60
Northrop Frye (1912–1991) Canadian literary critic and literary theorist
"Quotes", Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays (1957), Polemical Introduction
“Art! Who comprehends her? With whom can one consult concerning this great goddess?”
Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770–1827) German Romantic composer
Letter to Bettina von Arnim (11 August 1810)
Lyubov Popova (1889–1924) Russian artist
Quote, c. 1921; from Lyubov' Popova, in 'Commentary on Drawings', trans. ed. James West, in Art Into Life: Russian Constructivism, 1914-1932; catalogue for exhibition Rizzoli, New York: 1990, p. 69 (Popova's original text, in the Manuscript Division, State Tretiakov Gallery, Moscow, f. 148, ed. khr. 17, 1. 4.)
“All great art has madness, and quite a lot of bad art has it, too.”
William Saroyan (1908–1981) American writer
My Heart's in the Highlands (1939)
Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor of English literature, a literary critic, and a …
Source: 1960s, The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), p. 64
Mark Riebling (1963) American writer
Conservatism Turned Upside Down: Sam Tanenhaus' Critique of Conservative Reason (2009)
Arthur H. Robinson (1915–2004) American geographer
Source: The Look of Maps (1952), p. 17; as cited in: Kirk Patrick Goldsberry (2007) Real-time Traffic Maps. p. 23-24
Syama Prasad Mookerjee (1901–1953) Indian politician
Speech delivered at Delhi University Convocation on 13th December 1952.
George H. W. Bush (1924–2018) American politician, 41st President of the United States
George H. W. Bush, Speech at Carnegie Mellon University (10 April 1980)
Norman Mailer (1923–2007) American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, film maker, actor and political candidate
Source: The Man Who Studied Yoga (1956), Ch. 5
Daniel J. Fairbanks (1956) American artist
Let me share with you a few of my own experiences.
The quoted line is taken from "Education for Eternity" (12 Septemebr 1967), by Spencer W. Kimball, p. 11, preschool address to BYU faculty and staff.
The Arts, the Sciences, and the Light of the Gospel (2000)
Will Cuppy (1884–1949) American writer
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody (1950), Part II: Ancient Greeks and Worse, Nero
Theo van Doesburg (1883–1931) Dutch architect, painter, draughtsman and writer
Quote in Van Doesburg's art-review, published in: 'Thought – Vision – Creation', in De Stijl Vol ll, 2 December 1918; as quoted in 'Theo van Doesburg', Joost Baljeu, Studio Vista, London 1974, pp. 108–109
1912 – 1919
Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) American feminist, poet, author, and activist
Life Without and Life Within (1859), A Greeting
Camille Paglia (1947) American writer
Source: Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (1990), p. 29
Kenneth Tynan (1927–1980) English theatre critic and writer
"Laurence Olivier" (1966), p. 208
Profiles (1990)
Maria Mitchell (1818–1889) American astronomer
Maria Mitchell: Life, Letters and Journals (illustrated) by Maria Mitchell, 1896, p. 189.
Albert, Prince Consort (1819–1861) husband of Queen Victoria
"Albert, Prince" The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Ed. Elizabeth Knowles. Oxford University Press, 2004. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Accessed on 20 November 2008 http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t115.e51
“It takes time to live. Like any work of art, life needs to be thought about.”
Albert Camus book A Happy Death
A Happy Death (1971)
“In the vaunted works of Art
The master-stroke is Nature's part. 5.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
Art
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Variant: In the vaunted works of Art
The master-stroke is Nature's part. 5.
“There is only good and bad art.”
William Saroyan (1908–1981) American writer
My Heart's in the Highlands (1939)
Nathanael Greene (1742–1786) American general in the American Revolutionary War
Letter to George Washington (July 1776)