“Life offers a huge empty canvas; cover it with every pigment you can find — excess color is a blessing.”

—  Stephie Pahlavi Zan

Last update Aug. 23, 2026. History

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Marcel Duchamp photo

“[ Impressionism was] the beginning of a cult devoted to the material on the canvas – the actual pigment..”

Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) French painter and sculptor

posthumous

Asger Jorn photo

“[My own goal is] to be completely empty of ideas at the moment of setting brush to canvas, the head being just as empty as the canvas.”

Asger Jorn (1914–1973) Danish artist

In a conversation with Pierre Loeb, circa 1946; as quoted on the website of the Jorn Museum &#x27;Articles&#x27; by Jorn http://www.museumjorn.dk/en/article_presentation.asp?AjrDcmntId=255, <br class="br">1940 - 1948, Various sources

Yves Klein photo

“I dash out to the banks of the river [river the 'Loup', at Cagnes, France] and find myself amongst the rushes and the reeds. I grind some pigment over all this and the wind makes their slender stalks bend and appliqués them with precision and delicacy on to my canvas, which I thus offer to quivering nature: I obtain a vegetal mark. Then it starts to rain; a fine spring rain: I expose my canvas to the rain.... and I have the mark of the rain!”

Yves Klein (1928–1962) French artist

a mark of an atmospheric event.
In 1960; p. 61
1960 -1964, "Yves Klein, 1928 – 1962, Selected Writings"

Thomas à Kempis photo

“The Lord bestows his blessings there, where he finds the vessels empty.”

Thomas à Kempis book The Imitation of Christ

Source: The Imitation of Christ

Danny Kaye photo

“Life is a great big canvas; throw all the paint you can at it.”

Danny Kaye (1913–1987) American actor, singer, dancer, and comedian

Kakuzo Okakura photo

“Our mind is the canvas on which the artists lay their colour; their pigments are our emotions; their chiaroscuro the light of joy, the shadow of sadness. The masterpiece is of ourselves, as we are of the masterpiece.”

Kakuzo Okakura book The Book of Tea

Source: The Book of Tea

Karel Appel photo

“It's like this - you are in front of your canvas, you hand holds the paint, ready, raised. The canvas waits, waits, empty and white - but all the time it knows what it wants. So - what does it want, anyway? My hand comes near, my eyes begin to transform the waiting canvas; and when - with my hands holding the paint and my eyes seeing the forms - I touch the canvas, it trembles, it comes to life.”

Karel Appel (1921–2006) Dutch painter, sculptor, and poet

Karel Appel's excerpt', c. 1953

Tom Hanks photo

“And the meaning between two simple words that I can only offer you here: Thank you, God bless you in this room and God bless you all around the world.”

Tom Hanks (1956) American actor

67th Academy Award Speech (1995)

Piet Mondrian photo

“The first thing to change in my painting was the color [c. 1908-09]. I forsook natural color for pure color. I had come to feel that the colors of nature cannot be reproduced on canvas. Instinctively I felt that painting had to find a new way to express the beauty of nature.”

Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) Peintre Néerlandais

Quote of Mondrian about 1905-1910; in &#x27;Mondrian, Essays&#x27; (&#x27;Plastic art and pure plastic art&#x27;, 1937 and his other essays, (1941-1943) by Piet Mondrian; Wittenborn-Schultz Inc., New York, 1945, p. 10; as cited in De Stijl 1917-1931 - The Dutch Contribution to Modern Art, by H.L.C. Jaffé http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/jaff001stij01_01/jaff001stij01_01.pdf; J.M. Meulenhoff, Amsterdam 1956, p. 40

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