“Out with stereotypes, feminism proclaims. But stereotypes are the west's stunning sexual personae, the vehicles of art's assault against nature. The moment there is imagination, there is myth.”
Art refuses to sit still or be easily defined, and the best quotes about it do the same. Here you will find painters, sculptors, musicians, and writers wrestling with creativity, beauty, meaning, and the maddening gap between what you imagine and what you manage to make.
“No art can be noble which is incapable of expressing thought, and no art is capable of expressing thought which does not change.”
“Out with stereotypes, feminism proclaims. But stereotypes are the west's stunning sexual personae, the vehicles of art's assault against nature. The moment there is imagination, there is myth.”
“The task of art today is to bring chaos into order.”
“A picture is worth a thousand words.”
“Art begins in imitation and ends in innovation.”
“Advertising is the art of convincing people to spend money they don't have for something they don't need.”
“The effort of art is to keep what is interesting in existence, to recreate it in the eternal.”
“Trauma happens in relationships, so it can only be healed in relationships. Art can't provide healing. It can be cathartic and therapeutic but a relationship is a three-part journey.”
“The work of art assumes the existence of the perfect spectator, and is indifferent to the fact that no such person exists.”
“Only through art can we emerge from ourselves and know what another person sees.”
“The wealthy are always surrounded by hangers-on science and art are as well.”
“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.”
“The style of ancient Egyptian art is transcendently clear, something 8-year-olds can recognize in an instant. Its consistency and codification is one of the most epic visual journeys in all art, one that lasts 30 dynasties spread over 3,000 years.”
“The trend in some of the contemporary movements in art, but by no means all, seems to deny this ideal and to me appears to lead to a purely decorative conception of painting.”
“Dear God! how beauty varies in nature and art. In a woman the flesh must be like marble in a statue the marble must be like flesh.”
“Chance gives rise to thoughts, and chance removes them no art can keep or acquire them.”