“There is nothing there. What you see is not what you see. What you see is nothing. Nothing but shapes, lines, colors. What you see is whats in your mind. What you see is something somebody told you to look for. Look out for anything you see! Watch it! Watch out! Take care! Don’t leap before you look out.”

—  Ad Reinhardt

1956 - 1967
Source: the 'Ad Reinhardts Papers', Archives of American Art, microfilm no. N/69-103, frame no. 268

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 "There is nothing there. What you see is not what you see. What you see is nothing. Nothing but shapes, lines, colors. W…" by Ad Reinhardt?
Ad Reinhardt photo
Ad Reinhardt 22
American painter 1913–1967

Related quotes

Tove Jansson photo

“To see what you've done, look at what you are. To see what you'll be, look at your actions.”

Ken McLeod (1948) Canadian lama

Karma Doesn't Explain Anything http://www.unfetteredmind.org/karma-two-approaches%20. Unfettered Mind http://unfetteredmind.org. (Topic: Life)

Kodo Sawaki photo

“Hey! What are you looking at? Don’t you see that it’s about you?”

Kodo Sawaki (1880–1965) Japanese zen Buddhist monk

Zen ni kike (To you) (Tokyo: Daihorinkaku, 1987)

Richard Bach photo
Henry David Thoreau photo

“The question is not what you look at, but what you see.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

Variant: It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.

Sherrilyn Kenyon photo
Philip Larkin photo

“You can look out of your life like a train & see what you're heading for, but you can't stop the train.”

Philip Larkin (1922–1985) English poet, novelist, jazz critic and librarian

Letter to Monica Jones, 22 October 1967

Christopher Paolini photo

“You must learn to see what you are looking at.”

Glaedr
Variant: Learn to see what you are looking at.
Source: Inheritance (2011)

Related topics