Quotes on art
I am for an art that is political-erotical-mystical, that does something other than sit on its ass in a museum.
Oldenburg, Claes
The refusal to rest content, the willingness to risk excess on behalf of one's obsessions, is what distinguishes artists from entertainers, and what makes some artists adventurers on behalf of us all.
Updike, John
No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.
Wilde, Oscar
Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.
Wilde, Oscar
Surely all art is the result of one's having been in danger, of having gone through an experience all the way to the end, where no one can go any further.
Rilke, Rainer Maria
A person will sometimes devote all his life to the development of one part of his body - the wishbone.
Frost, Robert
It has been said that art is a tryst, for in the joy of it maker and beholder meet.
Tomita, Kojiro
An artist is a dreamer consenting to dream of the actual world.
Santayana, George
Art is the struggle to understand.
Foris, Audrey
A subject that is beautiful in itself gives no suggestion to the artist. It lacks imperfection.
Wilde, Oscar
Art hath an enemy called ignorance.
Jonson, Ben
Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one.
Adler, Stella
Listen carefully to first criticisms made of your work. Note just what it is about your work that critics don't like - then cultivate it. That's the only part of your work that's individual and worth keeping.
Cocteau, Jean
Art is pictures straight from the heart.
Ben
Art is indeed not the bread but the wine of life.
Richter, Jean Paul
Art, as far as it is able, follows nature, as a pupil imitates his master; thus your art must be, as it were, God's grandchild.
Alighieri, Dante
Art is like a border of flowers along the course of civilization.
Steffens, Lincoln
Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in.
Lowell, Amy
A great artist is always before his time or behind it.
Moore, George
Art is Man's nature. Nature is god's art.
Bailey, James
Poets do not go mad; but chess-players do. Mathematicians go mad, and cashiers; but creative artists very seldom.
Chesterton, Gilbert Keith
Nursing is an art: and if it is to be made an art, it requires an exclusive devotion as hard a preparation, as any painter's or sculptor's work; for what is the having to do with dead canvas or dead marble, compared with having to do with the living body, the temple of God's spirit? It is one of the Fine Arts: I had almost said, the finest of Fine Arts.
Nightingale, Florence
All great art comes from a sense of outrage.
Close, Glenn
What garlic is to salad, insanity is to art.
Saint-Gaudens, Augustus
A man and his art are like a fool and his king.
Alius, Corri
We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand. The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies.
Picasso, Pablo
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
Adams, Scott
To make us feel small in the right way is a function of art; men can only make us feel small in the wrong way.
Forster, E.M.
Life isn't long enough for love and art.
Maugham, W. Somerset
An artist must be careful not to throw his ideas out with the trash.
Groquet, Dena
Art is the stored honey of the human soul, gathered on wings of misery and travail.
Dreiser, Theodore
Art, science, philosophy, religion - each offers at best only a crude simplification of actual living experience.
Abbey, Edward
All art requires courage.
Tucker, Anne
The fine arts once divorcing themselves from truth are quite certain to fall mad, if they do not die.
Carlyle, Thomas
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.
Cather, Willa
Very few people possess true artistic ability. It is therefore both unseemly and unproductive to irritate the situation by making an effort. If you have a burning, restless urge to write or paint, simply eat something sweet and the feeling will pass.
Lebowitz, Fran