Art
Quotations
The artist
is not a special kind of man, but every man is a special kind of
artist.
- Ananda Coomraswamy (1877-1947), Indian writer. Transformation
of Nature in Art.
There really
is no such thing as Art. There are only artists.
- E. H. Gombrich, art critic
Art is science
made clear.
- Jean Cocteau, French author
But
all categories of art, idealistic or realistic, surrealistic or
constructivist (a new form of idealism) must satisfy a simple test
(or they are in no sense works of art): they must persist as objects
of contemplation.
Herbert Read (1893-1968), British art writer. Modern Sculpture.
Art completes
what nature cannot bring to finish
Aristotle (384 - 322 B.C.), Greek philosopher.
That which is static and repetitive is boring. That which is dynamic
and random is confusing. In between lies art.
John A. Locke (1632-1704), English philosopher.
Criticism is
easy, art is difficult.
Detouches [Philippe Nericault] (1680-1754) French. Le Glorieux, 1732.
Shall I tell
you what I think are the two qualities of a work of art? First, it
must be the indescribable, and second, it must be inimitable.
Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1914), French Impressionist. From an interview
with Walter Pach in Scribner's Magazine, May, 1912.
Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.
Oscar Wilde.
True art
is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955), German mathematician and physicist.
Art does not
reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible.
Paul Klee (1879-1940), Swiss artist. See Bauhaus.
Art establishes
the basic human truths which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) U.S. president. An address at Amherst
College, October 26, 1963.
Art is the
best, because richest, most complex and most easily comprehensible,
medium of communication between human beings.
Fowles (1968): John Fowles, The Aristos, London : Pan Books,
1968 (1965).
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