ART QUOTES IX

quotations about art

Art quote

Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.

BERTOLT BRECHT

attributed, Decade of Protest

Tags: Bertolt Brecht, reality


Truth as philosophy is a gas; as art, it is visible steam.

AUSTIN O'MALLEY

Keystones of Thought

Tags: Austin O'Malley, truth


The forms of art reflect the history of man more truthfully than do documents themselves.

THEODOR W. ADORNO

Philosophy of Modern Music

Tags: Theodor W. Adorno, history


Art reminds us that in fact the world always exceeds our grasp and perception.

JEREMY BEGBIE

Resounding Truth: Christian Wisdom in the World of Music

Tags: Jeremy Begbie


Art functions pyramidally: all new achievements are based on the utilization of everything that has been accumulated below, at the foundations of the pyramid. Revolutions do not occur here; this field, more than any other, is governed by evolution. And we must know what has been done before us in the field of verbal art. This does not mean that you must follow in trodden paths: you must contribute something of your own. A work of art is of value only when it is original, both in content and in form. But in order to leap upward, it is necessary to take off from the ground. It is essential that there be a ground.

YEVGENY ZAMYATIN

The Psychology of Creative Work

Tags: Yevgeny Zamyatin, originality


Beauty today can have no other measure except the depth to which a work resolves contradictions. A work must cut through the contradictions and overcome them, not by covering them up, but by pursuing them.

THEODOR W. ADORNO

attributed, Architecture and Modernity: A Critique

Tags: Theodor W. Adorno, beauty


The artist is justified by his art.

LEWIS FOREMAN DAY

Stained Glass

Tags: Lewis Foreman Day, artists


Art is a way of knowing what it is we actually believe.

PAT. B. ALLEN

Art Is a Way of Knowing

Tags: Pat B. Allen, belief


The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.

ROBERT HENRI

"With preparation, making art is inevitable", Press of Atlantic City, March 8, 2016


You're an artist ... that means you see the world in ways that other people don't. It's your gift, to see the beauty and the horror in ordinary things. It doesn't make you crazy--just different. There's nothing wrong with being different.

CASSANDRA CLARE

City of Bones

Tags: Cassandra Clare, artists


The reward of art is not fame or success but intoxication.

CYRIL CONNOLLY

The Unquiet Grave

Tags: Cyril Connolly


Art is a vehicle that allows us to transcend linear time, to travel backward and forward into personal and transpersonal history, into possibilities that weren't realized and those that might be.

PAT B. ALLEN

introduction, Art Is a Spiritual Path

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I think it would be a good stunt to get along without any art at all for a generation, and see what we miss.

SINCLAIR LEWIS

The Trail of the Hawk

Tags: Sinclair Lewis


I want to meet a guy named Art. I'd take him to a museum, hang him on the wall, criticize him, and leave.

JAROD KINTZ

I Want

Tags: funny


Some people are born to make great art and others are born to appreciate it.... It's a kind of talent in itself, to be an audience, whether you are a spectator in the gallery or you are listening to the voice of the world's greatest soprano. Not everyone can be an artist. There have to be those who witness the art, who love and appreciate what they have been privileged to see.

ANN PATCHETT

Bel Canto

Tags: Ann Patchett


Art is anything you can do well. Anything you can do with Quality.

ROBERT M. PIRSIG

interview, NPR, Jul. 12, 1974

Tags: Robert M. Pirsig


Art respects the masses, by standing up to them for what they could be, rather than conforming to them in their degraded state.

THEODOR W. ADORNO

Aesthetic Theory

Tags: Theodor W. Adorno


The desire for bad art is the desire bred of habit: like the smoker's desire for tobacco, more marked by the extreme malaise of denial than by any very strong delight in fruition.

C. S. LEWIS

Of This and Other Worlds


Art exists with or without the market; exists without critics or museums. It exists everywhere ... in your backyard. It perseveres because some lucky few are inspired to create in spite of not being supported for their work, not recognized and often taken advantage of by schools and systems that pay lip service, but a minimum of support.

BEN PERRONE

"Freedom to create art is a wonderful thing", Buffalo News, March 22, 2016


In art there are two principal schools between which each aspirant has to choose--one distinguished by its close adherence to nature, and the other by its strenuous efforts to get above it.

CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE

Intuitions and Summaries of Thought

Tags: Christian Nestell Bovee, Nature