“The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.”

—  Sol LeWitt

Sol LeWitt (1965); quoted in: Joseph Kosuth, (1969), " Art after Philosophy http://www.ubu.com/papers/kosuth_philosophy.html"
Quotes of Sol Lewitt

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Sol LeWitt photo
Sol LeWitt 9
American artist 1928–2007

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“In conceptual art the idea or the concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art. This kind of art is not theoretical or illustrative of theories; it is intuitive; it is involved with all types of mental processes and it is purposeless. It is usually free from the dependence on the skill of the artist as a craftsman.”

Sol LeWitt (1928–2007) American artist

Source: Quotes of Sol Lewitt, "Paragraphs on Conceptual Art," 1967, p. 80. Cited in: Diane Waldman. Carl Andre https://archive.org/stream/carlandre00wald#page/7/mode/1up. Published 1970 by Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. p. 7

John Sloan photo

“The idea of taking up art as a calling, a profession, is a mirage. Art enriches life. It makes life worth living. But to make a living at it—that idea is incompatible with making art.”

John Sloan (1871–1951) American painter

Ibid., p. 26.
The Gist of Art (1939)

Herbert Read photo

“Art differs from nature not in its organic form, but in its human origins: in the fact that it is not God or a machine that makes a work of art, but an individual”

Herbert Read (1893–1968) English anarchist, poet, and critic of literature and art

The Origins of Art (1966)
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Context: What I am searching for... is some formula that would combine individual initiative with universal values, and that combination would give us a truly organic form. Form, which we discover in nature by analysis, is obstinately mathematical in its manifestations—which is to say that creation in art requires thought and deliberation. But this is not to say that form can be reduced to a formula. In every work of art it must be re-created, but that too is true of every work of nature. Art differs from nature not in its organic form, but in its human origins: in the fact that it is not God or a machine that makes a work of art, but an individual with his instincts and intuitions, with his sensibility and his mind, searching relentlessly for the perfection that is neither in mind nor in nature, but in the unknown. I do not mean this in an other-worldly sense, only that the form of the flower is unknown to the seed.

Wilkie Collins photo

“I sadly want a reform in the construction of children. Nature's only idea seems to be to make them machines for the production of incessant noise.”

Wilkie Collins book The Woman in White

Source: The Woman in White

Trevor Baylis photo

“A good idea turns every cog in your mind, making you scared of bed in case the whole machine grinds to a halt.”

Trevor Baylis (1937–2018) English inventor

Cited in: Andrew Razeghi (2008), The Riddle: Where Ideas Come From and How to Have Better Ones. p. 104

Steve Martin photo

“I believe entertainment can aspire to be art, and can become art, but if you set out to make art you're an idiot.”

Steve Martin (1945) American actor, comedian, musician, author, playwright, and producer
Lorin Morgan-Richards photo

“Imperfectualism: (is) art that cannot be easily replicated by machine. An imperfectualist looks to slow automation through their art.”

Lorin Morgan-Richards (1975) American poet, cartoonist, and children's writer

Coined term on social media on March 16, 2018.
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John Howard Dellinger photo

“… as the world rapidly becomes a civilization of machines, the masters of machines will increasingly be the ones in control of the world.”

John Howard Dellinger (1886–1962) American engineer

explaining why the engineer should not be viewed as a "mere tender of machines", as quoted by [Hugh Richard Slotten, Radio and television regulation, JHU Press, 2000, 080186450X, 62]

Michael Dell photo

“I love this idea of human-machine partnerships because in my mind it’s always been very clear. It’s not about humans or machines, it’s about humans and machines.”

Michael Dell (1965) Businessman, CEO

SDxCentral: "Michael Dell Says Robopocalypse Is Fake News, Future Is Software Defined" https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/news/michael-dell-says-robopocalypse-is-fake-news-future-is-software-defined/2018/04/ (30 April 2018)

Philip Kotler photo

“Marketing is not the art of finding clever ways to dispose of what you make. It is the art of creating genuine customer value. It is the art of helping your customers become better of.”

Philip Kotler (1931) American marketing author, consultant and professor

Cited in: Robert W. Price (2001), Internet and Business, 2001-2002. p. 117
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