Art: Histories, Theories and Exceptions Book

Art

It is through art, and through art only, that we can realize our perfection; through art and art only that we can shield ourselves from the sordid perils of actual existence ' Oscar Wilde

THE FORCE OF Art lies in its immediate influence on human psychology and in its active contagiousness. Knowledge is born of the desire to know, Art derives from the necessity to communicate and to announce ' Naum Gabo

ALL real works of art were done in joy ' Robert Henri

The love of art means loss of real love ' Richepin

A TRUE work of art can stand many seeings, revealing anew at each seeing ' John Marin

LIFE IS RAPID, art is slow ' Henry Fuseli

Nature

The longer I stayed, the more I saw!

ART completes what nature cannot bring to finish. The artist gives us knowledge of nature's unrealized ends ' Aristotle

Color

Each day has its own individuality of color - Hawthorne

Black is like a broken vessel deprived of capacity to contain anything - Da Vinci

Colors have spiritual vibrations

White: lightest color - Wittgenstein

Yellow, orange, and red suggest ideas of joy and plenty

Black is not a color - Manet

Blue - stern and spiritual
Yellow - gentle, cheerful and sensual
Red - brutal and heavy

Black is the queen of colors - Rodin

Drawing

Drawing and composition are the same thing ' John Sloan

DRAW places you have seen from memory ' John Sloan

Drawing is explanation

Draw the meaning not the model itself

Light

Colors - deeds and sufferings of light

Increase in light gives an increase in darkness

Study

Study Chinese and Japanese art

AN ARTIST must educate himself, he cannot be educated - Robert Henri

Divide and conquer

The intelligent painter is always making use of accidents ' Charles Hawthorne

Line

Straight line does not exist in nature

Thickness of line emphasize its important

Brokenness - action or movement

Narrow from one side - distance

Painting

Painting - objects in perfect state

Painting is the copy of the perfect painting made by God - Michelangelo

Painting requires little mystery, vagueness and fantasy

Speculation - universality of painting

Painter's mind is the repository of images

Creativity

WHEN INSPIRATION doesn't come, I go halfway to meet it ' Sigmund Freud

I REMEMBER one vivid winter's day in Versailles. Silence and calm reigned supreme. Everything gazed at me with mysterious, questioning eyes. And then I realized that every corner of the place, every column, every window possessed a spirit, an impenetrable soul ' Giorgio de Chirico

YOU CANNOT govern the creative impulse; all you can do is to eliminate obstacles and smooth the way for it ' Kimon Nicolaides

Material

When the material ends, art begins ' Étienne Hajdu

Material teaches the artist ' Ilya Ehrenberg

Process

Artist grows as they work

Do whatever you do intensely ' Robert Henri

Three aspects of perspective ' size, color and distance

DON'T BE AFRAID to borrow. Little men just borrow from one person. Assimilate all you can from tradition and then say things in your own way ' John Sloan

Work lovingly done is the secret of all order and all happiness ' Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Becoming is more important than being ' Paul Klee

Take advantage of chance or accident ' Helen Frankenthaler

TAKE AN OBJECT. DO SOMETHING TO IT. DO SOMETHING ELSE TO IT. DO SOMETHING ELSE TO IT ' Jasper Johns

Style

I 'M INTERESTED IN A SORT OF SUSPENSION OF MEANING IN THE PICTURES ' Donald Baechler

MAKING your unknown known is the important thing ' Georgia O'Keeffe

THE ONLY THING worth doing is what's never been done ' David Salle

Judgement

TO DESCRIBE and explain my ideas is to lose them ' Marino Marini

Artist

AN ARTIST is an explorer. He has to begin by self-discovery and by observation of his own procedure ' Henri Matisse

I AM INDEPENDENT! I can live and I love to work ' Mary Cassatt

THE ARTIST should have a powerful will. He should be powerfully possessed by one idea. A picture should be the expression of the will of the painter ' Robert Henri

Life

Solitude is fine, but you need someone to tell you that solitude is fine ' Honoré de Balzac

ART is a jealous mistress, and if a man have a genius for painting, poetry, music, architecture, or philosophy, he makes a bad husband and an ill provider ' Ralph Waldo Emerson

Fame

Success ' ENTHUSIASM, industry, PANIC

ART SHOULD NEVER try to be popular ' Oscar Wilde

FAILURE IS the foundation of success ' Lao-tzu

Genius

IN A certain way I am glad I have not learned painting ' Vincent van Gogh

THOUGH A living cannot be made at art, art makes living worthwhile. It makes living, living. It brings life to life ' John Sloan

Passion

ALL HUMANITY is passion; without passion, religion, history, novels, art would be ineffectual ' Honoré de Balzac

Architecture

ARCHITECTURE completes nature ' Giorgio De Chirico

Time

WELL BEGUN is half done ' Aristotle

People take time to grow accustomed to the artwork

I WOULD LIKE some day to trap a moment of life in its full beauty. That would be the ultimate painting ' Francis Bacon

Spirit

TO SEPARATE THE ESSENTIAL FROM THE UNESSENTIAL IS WHAT I CALL BEING SPIRITUAL ' Franz Marc

Spiritual energy is the primary force in art ' Ben Shahn

I AM A mystic. I don't go to a church or the synagogue. For me, working is praying ' Marc Chagall