I have always had an obsession with collecting quotes from books, particulary books about or by artists. I have notebooks filled with them and even started a site dedicated to art quotes.
Here are a few favorites…
-
Don’t pay any attention to what they write about you. Just measure it in inches.
–Andy Warhol -
Success is dangerous. One begins to copy oneself, and to copy oneself is more dangerous than to copy others. It leads to sterility.
–Pablo Picasso -
The fine art of painting, which is the bastard of alchemy, always has been always will be, a game. The rules of the game are quite simple: in a given arena, on as many psychic fronts as the talent allows, one must visually describe, the centre of the meaning of existense.
–Brett Whiteley -
At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since.
–Salvador Dali -
Painting gave meaning to my life which without it it would not have had.
–Francis Bacon (the artist) -
After a half-century of hard work and reflection the wall is still there.
–Henri Matisse
They can be great to have laying around the studio or written on the walls if the landlord allows that kind of thing.
Feel free to share your favorite art quotes..
Dion,
The Brett Whiteley quote made me laugh out loud — a “simple” game, merely asking one to describe, visually, the centre of the meaning of existence. Not just the meaning of existence, but the center of that meaning. And the description would be visual, of course, although the rules are given verbally. I wonder if one can give the rules of such a game visually?
It is getting late.
Mrs. Rockefeller, you look like a million bucks.
– Willem de Kooning
Yeah, he was an ambitious artist June.
David, I love that one. I wonder if she was writing him a check/cheque when he said that.
I think the Picasso quote is very insightful. Another problem with success, it seems, is that artists get a bit lazy in the sense that they know everything will sell. At least, I have noticed this with writers. I think this is why some authors’ first few novels are their best ones.
The Matisse quote is a joy of ambiguity. Imagine he had said,
“After a half-century of hard work and reflection the mirror is still there.”
I also like the various interpretations one can give to the Matisse quote. Anyone know more about the context? Is there a common reading passed down by painters?
Dion, do you make any effort to check accuracy of the quotes? There are certainly distortions and misattributions out there, though the problem is most likely worse in other fields.
VVG: To know God is to love many things.
Do the Brett Whiteley quote and VVG are saying the same in their different ways?
Who is VVG?
B.
Vincent van Gogh.
(And for anyone skeptical about the brillance of contemporary art, I highly recommend viewing Ron Mueck at the Brooklyn ArT Museum and if unable to attend, the catalogue is MAGNIFICENT.)
David, I love that one. I wonder if she was writing him a check/cheque when he said that.
Dion, my understanding is that he was arriving at her house for a dinner party.
Another favorite of mine, that I think I’ve mentioned here before:
Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just get to work.
– Chuck Close (from an NPR interview)
Here’s one for you, Karl, to maybe put to rest your questions about children’s art
“All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”
Pablo Picasso
Seeing is forgetting the name of what one sees.
– Paul Valery (French poet)
Leslie,
I don’t take Pablo’s word as final, but I think he is on target here.
This one is my favorite – in fact I like it so much I have it first thing on my site – not too sure how many people appreciate it…
“My self … is a dramatic ensemble. Here a prophetic ancestor makes his appearance. Here a brutal hero shouts. Here an alcoholic bon vivant argues with a learned professor. Here a lyric muse, chronically love-struck, raises her eyes to heaven. Her papa steps forward, uttering pedantic protests. Here the indulgent uncle intercedes. Here the aunt babbles gossip. Here the maid giggles lasciviously. And I look upon it all with amazement, the sharpened pen in my left hand.”
Paul Klee (1879–1940), Swiss artist.
“The harder I work, the luckier I get.”
T. Jefferson
(Yes, he was an artist. Damn right.)
And just where did Picasso get off saying that stuff about copying oneself? Just how many of those two view crooked nose women did he paint? 500? Hypocrite? Or confession?
Sunil,
Your favorite quote hits the mark for me. I put up a couple of very different images on my SNAFU site while I was playing around, each of which was some kind of self-portrait. And these were only a couple of the representational pieces that I’ve done. I could have gone on with a whole series of Interiors, which are also self-portraits, albeit obscure to all but myself.
So do you do self-portraits in which you play the bonviant and the lascivious maid?
June,
The site is not SNAFU, but Znafu. Here is a link to your Znafu site. It’s looking great!
June,
I loved some of your artwork on display (especially some of the art that shows a revolving selection of your quilts on the main page. Some of them speak out in terms of a ‘self portrait’ to me).. I enjoyed looking at your site. I have completed only one ‘self-portrait’ so far and I have it at http://simplisticart.blogspot.com/2006/11/painting-post-with-little-deviation.html.
Sunil
Sunil,
I couldn’t get to your self-portrait and would like to see it. Would you check the url? And I’ll keep trying.
Karl, oh mercy! of course it’s Znafu. Whatever have I been thinking?
Well, I know what I’ve been thinking, and now I stand corrected. I love the language play.
Sorry, I think a period got stuck at the end of the URL… This should work.
http://simplisticart.blogspot.com/2006/11/painting-post-with-little-deviation.html
Sunil,
Thanks for redoing the url. The O’Regan and Noe article linked to from your blog on seeing is fascinating. I didn’t read it all, but what I read reminded me of something Nancy Hale’s mother said (Hale’s mother was a highly successful portrait painter in the 1920’s) — I paraphrase — “some people think their eyes are useful only to avoid running into doors.”
The postulates of the article seem to say that if you don’t experience a visual attribute that you won’t recognize it — that’s what made me think of the idea expressed by Hale’s mother; some people think of art only as photographs rendered in paint, visuals of doors that they can open and/or avoid running int. They can’t see anything else.
Perhaps sometime you can post further on the ramifications of that bit of science in the world of visual arts.
Leslie,
Thanks for the quote about children’s art. I use it here on Child and Art.