“Picturing things, taking a view, is what makes us human; art is making sense and giving shape to that sense. It is like the religious search for God.”

— Gerhard Richter

Notes, 1962; 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">1960's

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Gerhard Richter96

German visual artist, born 1932 1932

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“Picturing things, taking a view, is what makes us human; art is making sense and giving shape to that sense. It is like the religious search for God. We are well aware that making sense and picturing are artificial, like illusion; but we can never give them up. For belief (thinking out and interpreting the present and the future) is our most important characteristic.”

Gerhard Richter (1932) German visual artist, born 1932

undated quotes, The Daily Practice of Painting, Writings (1962-1993)

“Even if you don't believe in God, you still have to believe in something that gives meaning to your life, and shapes your sense of the world. Such a belief is religious.”

Michael Crichton book State of Fear

State of Fear (2004)
Context: I think that you cannot eliminate religion from the psyche of mankind. If you suppress it in one form, it merely emerges in another form. Even if you don't believe in God, you still have to believe in something that gives meaning to your life, and shapes your sense of the world. Such a belief is religious.

“I don't know why people expect art to make sense. Life doesn't make sense.”

David Lynch (1946) American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor

“We're told that they were zealots fueled by religious fervour…religious fervour and if you live to be a thousand years old will that make any sense to you? Will that make any goddamn sense?”

David Letterman (1947) American comedian and actor

During his first show after the September 11th attacks (17 September 2001).

“Art is the principal way in which the human mind has tried to remake the world in a way that makes sense.”

J. G. Ballard (1930–2009) British writer

"JG Ballard: Theatre of Cruelty" interview by Jean-Paul Coillard in Disturb ezine (1998) http://www.jgballard.ca/interviews/colliard_interview_1998.html <br class="br">Context: Art is the principal way in which the human mind has tried to remake the world in a way that makes sense. The carefully edited, slow-motion, action replay of a rugby tackle, a car crash or a sex act has more significance than the original event. Thanks to virtual reality, we will soon be moving into a world where a heightened super-reality will consist entirely of action replays, and reality will therefore be all the more rich and meaningful.

“I really learned how to look at art.... before 1960. And in a sense that sharpened my eye for abstract pictures. Because, it's light in the painting that makes it work. It's light in the painting that makes it work.”

Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011) American artist

quote about the role of light
1960s, Interview with Barbara Rose', Archives - American Art, 1968

“So you can't take credit for your talents, but it really matters if you use them. You can't really be blamed for your weaknesses and your failings, but it matters if you correct them. Pride and shame don't make a lot of sense in the final analyses. But they were no fun anyway. These are isolating emotions. What does make sense are things like compassion and love: caring about well-being makes sense; trying to maximize your well-being and the well-being of others makes sense. There is still a difference between suffering and happiness, and love consists in wanting those we love to be happy. All of that still makes sense without free will.”

Sam Harris (1967) American author, philosopher and neuroscientist

Sam Harris at Sydney Opera House Festival of Dangerous Ideas 2012, Discussion on Free Will http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM3raA1EwrI. <br class="br">2010s

“The business of the law is to make sense of the confusion of what we call human life—to reduce it to order but at the same time to give it possibility, scope, even dignity.”

Archibald Macleish (1892–1982) American poet and Librarian of Congress

Art and Law, Riders on Earth (1978)

“To all, proportioned terms he must dispense,
And make the sound a picture of the sense.”

Christopher Pitt (1699–1748) English poet

Book III, p. 103
Vida's Art of Poetry (1725)

“To all, proportioned terms he must dispense,
And make the sound a picture of the sense.”
Haud satis est illis utcunque claudere versum, Et res verborum propria vi reddere claras; Omnia sed numeris vocum concordibus aptant, Atque sono, quaecunque canunt, imitantur.

Marco Girolamo Vida (1485–1566) Italian bishop

Book III, line 365. Compare:
'Tis not enough no harshness gives offense;
The sound must seem an echo to the sense.
Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism, Part II, line 164
De Arte Poetica (1527)
Context: Tis not enough his verses to complete,
In measure, numbers, or determined feet;
Or render things, by clear expression bright,
And set each object in a proper light:
To all, proportioned terms he must dispense,
And make the sound a picture of the sense.

“Picturing things, taking a view, is what makes us human; art is making sense and giving shape to that sense. It is like the religious search for God.”

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