“[art] urges man to identify himself with nature.”
Source: 1940s, Abstract Art, Concrete Art (c. 1942), p. 118
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Hans Arp 42
Alsatian, sculptor, painter, poet and abstract artist 1886–1966Related quotes

[Parameswaran, Uma, C.V. Raman: A Biography, http://books.google.com/books?id=RbgXRdnHkiAC, 2011, Penguin Books India, 978-0-14-306689-7] page=xiv

In a letter to Mr. Clifford, February 14, 1948; as quoted in Letters of the great artists – from Ghiberti to Gainsborough, Richard Friedenthal, Thames and Hudson , London, 1963, p. 238
1940s

“Art hurts. Art urges voyages—
and it is easier to stay at home.”
"The Chicago Picasso" (1968)

c. 1910; as quoted in: Der Blick auf Fränzi und Marcella: Zwei Modelle der Brücke-Künstler Heckel, Kirchner und Pechstein, Norbert Nobis; Sprengel Museum Hannover und Stiftung Moritzburg, 2011, p 17
1905 - 1915
“Before man was aware of art he was aware of himself.”
L’Art Corporel, 1979
Context: Before man was aware of art he was aware of himself. Awareness of the person is, then, the first art. In performance art the figure of the artist is the tool for the art. It is the art.

“Art is Nature made by Man
To Man the interpreter of God.”
The Artist, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
December 1969; quote from a talk with his audience
Source: Artists talks 1969 – 1977, p. 12