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.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
I have seen, and heard, much of Cockney impudence before now; but never expected to hear a coxcomb ask two hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic
I choose a block of marble and chop off whatever I don’t need.
—Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) French Sculptor
Art is the symbol of the two noblest human efforts: to construct and to refrain from destruction.
—Simone Weil (1909–1943) French Philosopher, Political Activist
The work of art, just like any fragment of human life considered in its deepest meaning, seems to me devoid of value if it does not offer the hardness, the rigidity, the regularity, the luster on every interior and exterior facet, of the crystal.
—Andre Breton (1896–1966) French Poet, Essayist, Critic
Most works of art, like most wines, ought to be consumed in the district of their fabrication.
—Rebecca West (1892–1983) English Author, Journalist, Literary Critic
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.
—Vaclav Havel (1936–2011) Czech Dramatist, Statesman
A man paints with his brains and not with his hands.
—Michelangelo (1475–1564) Italian Painter, Sculptor, Architect, Poet, Engineer
Art is science made clear.
—Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French Poet, Playwright, Film Director
This grandiose tragedy that we call modern art.
—Salvador Dali (1904–89) Spanish Painter
An artist must be a reactionary. He has to stand out against the tenor of the age and not go flopping along.
—Evelyn Waugh (1903–66) British Novelist, Essayist, Biographer
Art is the child of Nature; yes, her darling child, in whom we trace the features of the mother’s face, her aspect and her attitude.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
Art is the most passionate orgy within man’s grasp.
—John Donne (1572–1631) English Poet, Cleric
Art hath an enemy called ignorance
—Ben Jonson (1572–1637) English Dramatist, Poet, Actor
Each of the arts whose office is to refine, purify, adorn, embellish and grace life is under the patronage of a muse, no god being found worthy to preside over them.
—Eliza Farnham (1815–64) American Reformer, Writer
Art is not merely an imitation of the reality of nature, but in truth a metaphysical supplement to the reality of nature, placed alongside thereof for its conquest.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
There is only one difference between a madman and me. I am not mad.
—Salvador Dali (1904–89) Spanish Painter
If I spit, they will take my spit and frame it as great art.
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish Painter, Sculptor, Artist
In free society art is not a weapon. Artists are not engineers of the soul.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
Art is too serious to be taken seriously.
—Ad Reinhardt (1913–1967) American Abstract Painter
What distinguishes modern art from the art of other ages is criticism.
—Octavio Paz (1914–98) Mexican Poet, Diplomat
The greater the decrease in the social significance of an art form, the sharper the distinction between criticism and enjoyment by the public. The conventional is uncritically enjoyed, and the truly new is criticized with aversion.
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) German Literary and Marxist Critic
The perfection of art is to conceal art.
—Quintilian (c.35–c.100 CE) Roman Rhetorician, Literary Critic
The creative artist seems to be almost the only kind of man that you could never meet on neutral ground. You can only meet him as an artist. He sees nothing objectively because his own ego is always in the foreground of every picture.
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959) American Novelist
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.
—David Hockney (b.1937) English Painter, Draughtsman
Progressive art can assist people to learn not only about the objective forces at work in the society in which they live, but also about the intensely social character of their interior lives. Ultimately, it can propel people toward social emancipation.
—Angela Davis (b.1944) American Political Activist, Academic
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.
—Vincent van Gogh (1853–90) Dutch Painter
To write is to become disinterested. There is a certain renunciation in art.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Novelist
A frenzied passion for art is a canker that devours everything else.
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) French Poet, Art Critic, Essayist, Translator
To say that a work of art is good, but incomprehensible to the majority of men, is the same as saying of some kind of food that it is very good but that most people can’t eat it.
—Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian Novelist
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