“I believe I am looking for rightness. My work has so much to do with reality that I wanted to have a corresponding rightness. That excludes painting in imitation. In nature everything is always right: the structure is right, the proportions are good, the colours fit the forms. If you imitate that in painting, it becomes false.”

— Gerhard Richter

Interview with Anna Tilroe, 1987; as cited on collected quotes on the website of Gerhard Richter: on 'Abstract paintings' https://www.gerhard-richter.com/en/quotes/subjects-2/abstract-paintings-7
1980's

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Gerhard Richter 96

German visual artist, born 1932 1932

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“I believe that art has a kind of Rightness, as in music, when we hear whether or not a note is false. And that's why classical paintings, which are right in their own terms, are so necessary for me. In addition to that there's nature, which also has this rightness.”

Gerhard Richter (1932) German visual artist, born 1932

Source: after 2000, Doubt and belief in painting' (2003), p. 106, note 59

“So, of course, the visions are painted in the colours of the rainbow, and the reality is sketched in duller tones of black and white and grey. But I ask you to accept one thing. Hand on heart, I did what I thought was right. I may have been wrong. That is your call. But believe one thing, if nothing else. I did what I thought was right for our country.”

Tony Blair (1953) former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

" Full text of Tony Blair's resignation speech http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/the_blair_years/article1772414.ece", Times Online, 10 May 2007.
Announcing his impending resignation, Trimdon Labour Club, 10 May 2007.
2000s

“When I first started doing self-portraits – and I didn’t start until I was in my 40s, quite late – I did these portraits where my hand was kind of stretched out toward the canvas, as if about to paint…I suppose I was imitating those famous poses of Goya or Rembrandt. But something felt so false about that. Somehow women don’t have a secure place in the history of art and to portray myself in this way standing squarely, about to paint, it wasn’t right.”

Celia Paul (1959) British artist

On her painting techniques in “Celia Paul on life after Lucian Freud: ‘I had to make this story my own’” https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/oct/27/celia-paul-self-portrait-memoir-interview-lucian-freud in The Guardian (2019 Oct 27)

“The whole ‘rights’ thing is fraught with so much. I’m not sure I believe in any natural right.”

Wayne Pacelle (1965) American activist

"Wayne Pacelle works for the winged, finned and furry," 2008

“I do not just believe I am right, I know I am right.”

Nick Griffin (1959) British politician

From an article in The Guardian, may 2000.

“All right. I’m not opposed to reality imitating art if it doesn’t get in the way.”

Samuel R. Delany (1942) American author, professor and literary critic

Source: Lines of Power (1968), p. 26

“The truth [is in his paintings]... When they have a similar structure to and are organized in as truthful a way as nature. When I look out of the window, then truth for me is the way nature shows itself in its various tones, colours and proportions. That's a truth and has its own correctness. This little slice of nature, and in fact any given piece of nature, represents to me an ongoing challenge, and is a model for my paintings.”

Gerhard Richter (1932) German visual artist, born 1932

In an interview with Christiane Vielhaber, 1986; as cited on collected quotes on the website of Gerhard Richter: 'on Other subjects' https://www.gerhard-richter.com/en/quotes/other-aspects-6
1980's

“I always pet a dog with my left hand, because if he bit me, I'd still have my right hand to paint with.”

Juan Gris (1887–1927) Spanish painter and sculptor

Attributed by Max Jacob (1876–1944) to Juan Gris, quoted in: Jeanine Warnod (1972). Washboat days. p. 204

“When I have to think about it, I know the picture is wrong. And sizing is a form of thinking and coloring is too. My instinct about painting says, 'If you don’t think about it, it's right.'”

Andy Warhol (1928–1987) American artist

As soon as you have to decide and choose, it's wrong. And the more you decide about, the more wrong it gets. Some people, they paint abstract, so they sit there thinking about it because their thinking makes them feel they're doing something. But my thinking never makes me feel I'm doing anything.
Source: 1970s, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (1975), p. 149

“.. in my ideal of a good painting; there's unity. The drawing and the colour are no longer distinct; as soon as you paint you draw; the more the colours harmonize, the more precise the drawing becomes. I know that from experience. When the colour is at its richest, the form is at its fullest.”

Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) French painter

Source: Quotes of Paul Cezanne, after 1900, Cézanne, - a Memoir with Conversations, (1897 - 1906), p. 221 in: 'What he told me – III. The Studio'

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