“In very other period of art history, the idea itself –the what – had been primary. Today the idea matters less than the way it is arrived at; it is the how that makes the work. This word brings us again face to face with the theme and its infinite variations. It is no longer a matter of knowing, of possessing the truth, but of approaching it… knowing that the road is long, knowing that the road does not end, knowing that the road is the end in itself.”

—  Michel Seuphor

Source: Abstract Painting (1964), p. 159 : About 1961

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 "In very other period of art history, the idea itself –the what – had been primary. Today the idea matters less than the…" by Michel Seuphor?
Michel Seuphor photo
Michel Seuphor9
designer, draughtsman, painter 1901–1999

Related quotes

Marcellus Wiley photo

“We know what identity politics does -- it divides, and it polarizes. No matter how you want to look at it, that's just the effect of it no matter how great the intentions are. We all know the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

Marcellus Wiley (1974) American football player

Marcellus Wiley: NBA plan to paint 'Black Lives Matter' on courts 'not a good idea' https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/marcellus-wiley-nba-plan-to-paint-black-lives-matter-on-courts-not-a-good-idea (June 2020)

“Never give up, no matter what may set you back, and know that at the end of the road, you’re going to have something that you can be proud of.”

Марк Фишбах (Markiplier) (1989)

Jack Kerouac photo

“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Source: On the Road

Nisargadatta Maharaj photo

“(…) creation itself is rooted in ignorance; matter itself is ignorance. Not to know, and not to know that one does not know, is the cause of endless suffering.”

Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897–1981) Indian guru

Suffering
Source: I am That, P.116.

Niccolo Machiavelli photo

“I assert once again as a truth to which history as a whole bears witness that men may second their fortune, but cannot oppose it; that they may weave its warp, but cannot break it. Yet they should never give up, because there is always hope, though they know not the end and more towards it along roads which cross one another and as yet are unexplored; and since there is hope, they should not despair, no matter what fortune brings or in what travail they find themselves.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book Discourses on Livy

Book 2, Ch. 29 (as translated by LJ Walker and B Crick)
Discourses on Livy (1517)

Ai Weiwei photo

“It doesn’t matter where I am—China will stay in me. I don’t know how far I can still walk on this road and what is the limit.”

Ai Weiwei (1957) Chinese concept artist

2010-, Ai Weiwei: ‘Shame on Me.’, 2011

Barack Obama photo

“America, I know the road will be long, but I know we can get there. Yes, we will stumble, but I know we’ll get back up. That’s how a movement happens. That’s how history bends. That's how when somebody is faint of heart, somebody else brings them along and says, come on, we’re marching.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2013, "Let Freedom Ring" Ceremony (August 2013)

Gabrielle Zevin photo

“Someday, you do not know when, you will be driving down the road and someday, you do not now when, you will make a wrong tun. At the end of the road, when you're least expecting it, he (or indeed she) will be there.”

Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer

Source: Margarettown

Henri Poincaré photo

“Logic teaches us that on such and such a road we are sure of not meeting an obstacle; it does not tell us which is the road that leads to the desired end. For this, it is necessary to see the end from afar, and the faculty which teaches us to see is intuition. Without it, the geometrician would be like a writer well up in grammar but destitute of ideas.”

Henri Poincaré book Science and Method

La logique nous apprend que sur tel ou tel chemin nous sommes sûrs de ne pas rencontrer d'obstacle ; elle ne nous dit pas quel est celui qui mène au but. Pour cela il faut voir le but de loin, et la faculté qui nous apprend à voir, c'est l'intuition. Sans elle, le géomètre serait comme un écrivain qui serait ferré sur la grammaire, mais qui n'aurait pas d'idées.
Part II. Ch. 2 : Mathematical Definitions and Education, p. 130
Science and Method (1908)

Related topics