“One must realize that, apart from considerations of color and form, there are two fundamentally different ways of regarding a medium of expression: one is based on taste only — an approach in which the external physical elements of expression are merely pleasingly arranged. This way results in decoration with no spiritual reaction. Arrangement is not art. The second way is based on the artist’s power of empathy, to feel the intrinsic qualities of the medium of expression. Through these qualities the medium comes to life... In this life, an intuitive artist discovers the emotive and vital substance which makes a work of art.”

Source: 1900s, Notes d'un Peintre (Notes of a Painter) (1908), p. 410

Kandinsky's last theoretical statement (Paris, 1942); in Kandinsky, Frank Whitford, Paul Hamlyn Ltd, London 1967, p. 38
1930 - 1944

As quoted in Hans Hofmann (1963) by William Chapin Seitz, p. 15
1960s

Form in Modern Poetry(1932)

'Excerpts from the Teaching of Hans Hofmann', p. 64
Search for the Real and Other Essays (1948)

Kenneth Noland, p. 10
Conversation with Karen Wilkin' (1986-1988)

Source: God and the New Physics (1983), Ch. 17: 'The physicist's conception of nature', p. 223

As quoted in Man Ray : The Rigour of Imagination (1977) by Arturo Schwarz, p. 10 <!-- also in Man Ray : Photographs and Objects (1980) by Birmingham Museum of Art -->
Variant: I paint what cannot be photographed, that which comes from the imagination or from dreams, or from an unconscious drive. I photograph the things that I do not wish to paint, the things which already have an existence.
As quoted in an interview "Man Ray: Photographer" published in Camera (1981) edited by Philippe Sers <!-- and in The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations (1993) edited by Robert Andrews, p. 686 -->
Context: l paint what cannot be photographed, and l photograph what l do not wish to paint. lf it is a portrait that interests me, a face, or a nude, I will use my camera. It is quicker than making a drawing or a painting. But if it is something I cannot photograph, like a dream or a subconscious impulse I have to resort to drawing or painting. To express what I feel I use the medium best suited to express that idea, which is also always the most economical one. l am not at all interested in being consistent as a painter, and object-maker or a photographer. I can use several different techniques, like the old masters who were engineers, musicians and poets at the same time. I have never shared the contempt shown by painters for photography: there is no competition involved, painting and photography are two media engaged in different paths. There is no conflict between the two.

'Search for the Real in the Visual Arts', p. 54
Search for the Real and Other Essays (1948)