ART QUOTES IV

quotations about art

Art quote

Were I called on to define, very briefly, the term "Art," I should call it "the reproduction of what the Senses perceive in Nature through the veil of the soul." The mere imitation, however accurate, of what is in Nature, entitles no man to the sacred name of "Artist".

EDGAR ALLAN POE

"Marginalia"

Tags: Edgar Allan Poe, soul


While our art cannot, as we wish it could, save us from wars, privation, envy, greed, old age, or death, it can revitalize us amidst it all.

RAY BRADBURY

preface, Zen in the Art of Writing

Tags: Ray Bradbury


Art is a language that doesn't need to be translated.

AHMAD HARIRI

"How art is helping Syrian refugees keep their culture alive", The Guardian, March 2, 2016


Art is memory's mise-en-scene.

LUIS BARRAGÁN

The Architecture of Luis Barragán


Every artist dips his brush in his own soul and paints his own nature into his pictures.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit

Tags: Henry Ward Beecher, soul


I do get students that initially think they're never going to be that good an artist. I refuse to accept that. There's trained and untrained. It's OK for you to be working on your own level -- as long as you're working.

ROBERT LEMMING

"Art Is Communication: Artist turned teacher encourages conversation", Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette, March 11, 2016


Whenever I become discouraged (which is on alternate Tuesdays, between three and four) I lift my spirits by remembering: The artists are on our side! I mean those poets and painters, singers and musicians, novelists and playwrights who speak to the world in a way that is impervious to assault because they wage the battle for justice in a sphere which is unreachable by the dullness of ordinary political discourse.

HOWARD ZINN

"Artists of Resistance", The Historic Unfulfilled Promise

Tags: Howard Zinn


Art is a little subversive, very subversive; it gets underneath the surface and reveals what is there; it is a Geiger counter for truth.

PAT B. ALLEN

Art Is a Spiritual Path

Tags: Pat B. Allen, truth


Art is not Nature, art is Nature digested. Art is a sublime excrement.

GEORGE MOORE

Confessions of a Young Man

Tags: George Moore, nature


Keep doing what you like to do. That's all [art] is.

CORY ARCANGEL

interview with Stina Puotinen, Mar. 21, 2009


The idea of a new art based upon science, in opposition to the art of the old world that was based on imagination, an art that should explain all things and embrace modern life in its entirety, in its endless ramifications, be, as it were, a new creed in a new civilization, filled me with wonder, and I stood dumb before the vastness of the conception, and the towering height of the ambition.

GEORGE MOORE

Confessions of a Young Man

Tags: George Moore, science


The work of art still has something in common with enchantment: it posits its own, self-enclosed area, which is withdrawn from the context of profane existence, and in which special laws apply.

THEODOR W. ADORNO

Dialectic of Enlightenment

Tags: Theodor W. Adorno


When Nature begins to reveal her open secret to a man, he feels an irresistible longing for her worthiest interpreter, Art.

JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe

Tags: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, nature


All passes. Art alone
Enduring stays to us;
The Bust outlasts the throne,--
The Coin, Tiberius.

HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON

Ars Victrix

Tags: Henry Austin Dobson


Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere.

G. K. CHESTERTON

Art Like Morality Consists in Drawing the Line Somewhere

Tags: G. K. Chesterton, morality


Never judge a work of art by its defects.

WASHINGTON ALLSTON

attributed, A Dictionary of Thoughts: Being a Cyclopedia of Laconic Quotations from the Authors of the World, both Ancient and Modern

Tags: Washington Allston


The artist does not really create; he discovers.

LYMAN ABBOTT

The Great Companion

Tags: Lyman Abbott


Art is an infinitely precious good, a draught both refreshing and cheering which restores the stomach and the mind to the natural equilibrium of the ideal.

CHARLES BAUDELAIRE

preface, Salon of 1846

Tags: Charles Baudelaire


I believe that economic prosperity and cultural wealth go hand in hand. This is why it is important to even further promote the cultural arts during times of economic slowdown.

OH SEUNG-JE

"All That Korean Art Is There for a Reason", New York Times, March 16, 2016


True art required the right amount of uncertainty, just as gourmet cooking needed the proper spices and flavors.

BRIAN HERBERT & KEVIN J. ANDERSON

The Butlerian Jihad

Tags: Brian Herbert, cooking