In a purely technical sense each species of higher organism is richer in information than a Caravaggio painting Bach fugue or any other great work of art.
When Michelangelo finished the painting of the Sistine Chapels ceiling he spent the rest of his life trying to remove the paint that had poured into his sleeve.
What was any art but a mould in which to imprison for a moment the shining elusive element which is life itself – life hurrying past us and running away too strong to stop too sweet to lose.
Art produces ugly things which frequently become more beautiful with time. Fashion on the other hand produces beautiful things which always become ugly with time.
In Chicago we may not think the Picasso presiding over the Richard J. Daley Center plaza is art but we know its a big Picasso and its the citys Picasso and when the Cubs made the play-offs the sculpture wore a baseball cap just like everything else.
The artist one day falls through a hole in the brambles and from that moment he is following the dark rapids of an underground river which may sometimes flow so near to the surface that the laughing picnic parties are heard above.
Where the world ceases to be the scene of our personal hopes and wishes where we face it as free beings admiring asking and observing there we enter the realm of Art and Science.
Twentieth-century art may start with nothing but it flourishes by virtue of its belief in itself in the possibility of control over what seems essentially uncontrollable in the coherence of the inchoate and in its ability to create its own values.
The aim of every artist is to arrest motion which is life by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later when a stranger looks at it it moves again since it is life.
Works of art in my opinion are the only objects in the material universe to possess internal order and that is why though I dont believe that only art matters I do believe in Art for Arts sake.
The history of modern art is also the history of the progressive loss of arts audience. Art has increasingly become the concern of the artist and the bafflement of the public.
The artist is nothing without the gift but the gift is nothing without work.
God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe the elephant and the ant. He has no real style. He just goes on trying other things.
Art is the proper task of life.
I choose a block of marble and chop off whatever I dont need.
Art like morality consists in drawing a line somewhere.
If I had been around when Rubens was painting I would have been revered as a fabulous model. Kate Moss? Well she would have been the paintbrush.
In a purely technical sense each species of higher organism is richer in information than a Caravaggio painting Bach fugue or any other great work of art.
It is the spectator and not life that art really mirrors.
Portraits are supposed to look within but in my opinion very few people have an interior significantly different from the outside portrait.
Science and art belong to the whole world and the barriers of nationality vanish before them.
When Michelangelo finished the painting of the Sistine Chapels ceiling he spent the rest of his life trying to remove the paint that had poured into his sleeve.
Fine art and pizza delivery: what we do falls neatly in between.
The art of love… is largely the art of persistence.
Im not a driven businessman but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.
Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one.
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things but their inward significance.
Every artist dips his brush in his own soul and paints his own nature into his pictures.
Painting n.: The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather and exposing them to the critic.
The artist has one function-to affirm and glorify life.
I paint with shapes.
I dont need the money dear. I work for art.
Without freedom no art; art lives only on the restraints it imposes on itself and dies of all others.
Abstract art is a product of the untalented sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered.
The essence of all art is to have pleasure in giving pleasure.
What was any art but a mould in which to imprison for a moment the shining elusive element which is life itself – life hurrying past us and running away too strong to stop too sweet to lose.
When I judge art I take my painting and put it next to a God made object like a tree or flower. If it clashes it is not art.
Art is the unceasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers and never succeeding.
Modern art is what happens when painters stop looking at girls and persuade themselves that they have a better idea.
Art produces ugly things which frequently become more beautiful with time. Fashion on the other hand produces beautiful things which always become ugly with time.
In Chicago we may not think the Picasso presiding over the Richard J. Daley Center plaza is art but we know its a big Picasso and its the citys Picasso and when the Cubs made the play-offs the sculpture wore a baseball cap just like everything else.
The artist one day falls through a hole in the brambles and from that moment he is following the dark rapids of an underground river which may sometimes flow so near to the surface that the laughing picnic parties are heard above.
An artist cannot fail; it is a success to be one.
When one buys some of my artwork I hope it is because they will wish to learn from it and not because they think it will match their drapes!
That is what the title of artist means: one who perceives more than his fellows and who records more than he has seen.
I do not paint a portrait to look like the subject rather does the subject grow to look like his portrait.
Painting is easy when you dont know how but very difficult when you do.
Art is the stored honey of the human soul gathered on wings of misery and travail.
The defining function of the artist is to cherish consciousness.
Where the world ceases to be the scene of our personal hopes and wishes where we face it as free beings admiring asking and observing there we enter the realm of Art and Science.
So-called art restoration is at least as tricky as brain surgery. Most pictures expire under scalpel and sponge.
Twentieth-century art may start with nothing but it flourishes by virtue of its belief in itself in the possibility of control over what seems essentially uncontrollable in the coherence of the inchoate and in its ability to create its own values.
Colors that blend with the brick and the dark waters of the citys canals – greens browns and the strong shade of oxblood that is known as Bruges red.
Every artist writes his own autobiography.
Are you really sure that a floor cant also be a ceiling?
The aim of every artist is to arrest motion which is life by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later when a stranger looks at it it moves again since it is life.
All art is autobiographical. The pearl is the oysters autobiography.
Of all lies art is the least untrue.
Works of art in my opinion are the only objects in the material universe to possess internal order and that is why though I dont believe that only art matters I do believe in Art for Arts sake.
The history of modern art is also the history of the progressive loss of arts audience. Art has increasingly become the concern of the artist and the bafflement of the public.
Art is a step from what is obvious and well-known toward what is arcane and concealed.