Quotes about art

"The highest problem of any art is to cause by appearance the illusion of a higher reality."

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von on art   

"Personality is everything in art and poetry."

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von on art   

"One of the most striking signs of the decay of art is when we see its separate forms jumbled together."

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von on art   

"Art is long, life short, judgment difficult, opportunity transient."

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von on art
3 fans of this quote   

"I can't work without a model. I won't say I turn my back on nature ruthlessly in order to turn a study into a picture, arranging the colors, enlarging and simplifying; but in the matter of form I am too afraid of departing from the possible and the true."

Gogh, Vincent Van on art   

"It is not the language of painters but the language of nature which one should listen to the feeling for the things themselves, for reality, is more important than the feeling for pictures."

Gogh, Vincent Van on art   

"As a general truth, it is safe to say that any picture that produces a moral impression is a bad picture."

Goncourt, Edmond and Jules De on art   

"A painting in a museum probably hears more foolish remarks than anything else in the world."

Goncourt, Edmond and Jules De on art   

"Art is on the side of the oppressed. Think before you shudder at the simplistic dictum and its heretical definition of the freedom of art. For if art is freedom of the spirit, how can it exist within the oppressors?"

Gordimer, Nadine on art   

"Art is so wonderfully irrational, exuberantly pointless, but necessary all the same. Pointless and yet necessary, that's hard for a puritan to understand."

Grass, Gunther on art   

"There is only one art, whose sole criterion is the power, the authenticity, the revelatory insight, the courage and suggestiveness with which it seeks its truth. Thus, from the standpoint of the work and its worth it is irrelevant to which political ideas the artist as a citizen claims allegiance, which ideas he would like to serve with his work or whether he holds any such ideas at all."

Havel, Vaclav on art   

"Art is a reality, not a definition; inasmuch as it approaches a reality, it approaches perfection, and inasmuch as it approaches a mere definition, it is imperfect and untrue."

Haydon, Benjamin on art   

"If we are to change our world view, images have to change. The artist now has a very important job to do. He's not a little peripheral figure entertaining rich people, he's really needed."

Hockney, David on art   

"A picture is a poem without words."

Horace on art   

"The finest works of art are precious, among other reasons, because they make it possible for us to know, if only imperfectly and for a little while, what it actually feels like to think subtly and feel nobly."

Huxley, Aldous on art
3 fans of this quote   

"A work of art is above all an adventure of the mind."

Ionesco, Eugene on art   

"The moment you cheat for the sake of beauty, you know you're an artist."

Jacob, Max on art   

"It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance and I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of its process."

James, Henry on art   

"Art has an enemy called ignorance."

Johnson, Ben on art   

"No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money."

Johnson, Samuel on art   

"I'm still an artist. I'm never gonna do a shit movie, because I've got my modeling to support me."

Jovovich, Milla on art   

"Art is the human disposition of sensible or intelligible matter for an esthetic end."

Joyce, James on art   

"Irresponsibility is part of the pleasure of all art; it is the part the schools cannot recognize."

Kael, Pauline on art   

"I see little of more importance to the future of our country and of civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist. If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him."

Kennedy, John F. on art   

"If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him."

Kennedy, John F. on art   

"In free society art is not a weapon. Artists are not engineers of the soul."

Kennedy, John F. on art   

"Art, that great undogmatized church."

Key, Ellen on art   

"And the first rude sketch that the world had seen was joy to his mighty heart, till the Devil whispered behind the leaves It's pretty, but is it Art?"

Kipling, Rudyard on art   

"Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible."

Klee, Paul on art   

"The more horrifying this world becomes, the more art becomes abstract."

Klee, Paul on art   

"An artist is forced by others to paint out of his own free will."

Kooning, Willem De on art   

"In art, one idea is as good as another. If one takes the idea of trembling, for instance, all of a sudden most art starts to tremble. Michelangelo starts to tremble. El Greco starts to tremble. All the Impressionists start to tremble."

Kooning, Willem De on art   

"Whatever an artist's personal feelings are, as soon as an artist fills a certain area on the canvas or circumscribes it, he becomes historical. He acts from or upon other artists."

Kooning, Willem De on art   

"The more minimal the art, the more maximum the explanation."

Kramer, Hilton on art   

"In art there are tears that lie too deep for thought."

Kronenberger, Louis on art   

"Art is the objectification of feeling."

Langer, Suzanne K. on art   

"A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving. A good artist lets his intuition lead him wherever it wants."

Lao-Tzu on art
5 fans of this quote   

"In other countries, art and literature are left to a lot of shabby bums living in attics and feeding on booze and spaghetti, but in America the successful writer or picture-painter is indistinguishable from any other decent businessman."

Lewis, Sinclair on art   

"Making social comment is an artificial place for an artist to start from. If an artist is touched by some social condition, what the artist creates will reflect that, but you can't force it."

Lewitzky, Bella on art   

"Nature is a revelation of God; Art a revelation of man."

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth on art
3 fans of this quote   

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