The Quotes canon
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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Oscar Wilde4 quotes
It is only an auctioneer who can equally and impartially admire all schools of Art. — Oscar Wilde · 1891No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist. — Oscar Wilde · 1891The true artist is a man who believes absolutely in himself, because he is absolutely himself. — Oscar Wilde · 1891It is through Art, and through Art only, that we can realize our perfection; through Art, and through Art only, that we can shield ourselves from the sordid perils of actual existence. — Oscar Wilde · 1891Georges Braque3 quotes
Art is meant to disturb, science reassures. — Georges Braque · 1952Light is a delicate thing. — Georges BraqueThe only valid thing in art is that which cannot be explained. — Georges Braque · 1957Pablo Picasso3 quotes
Painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war for attack and defense against the enemy. — Pablo Picasso · 1945Painting isn't an aesthetic operation; it's a form of magic designed as a mediator between this strange hostile world and us, a way of seizing the power by giving form to our terrors as well as our desires. — Pablo Picasso · 1964The blue period was not a question of color. It was an inner necessity to paint like that. — Pablo Picasso · 1956Susan Sontag3 quotes
Much of modern art is devoted to lowering the threshold of what is terrible. By getting us used to what, formerly, we could not bear to see or hear, because it was too shocking, painful, or embarrassing, art changes morals. — Susan Sontag · 1973Real art has the capacity to make us nervous. — Susan Sontag · 1966Interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art. — Susan Sontag · 1966Andy Warhol2 quotes
Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. — Andy Warhol · 1975I think having land and not ruining it is the most beautiful art that anybody could ever want to own. — Andy Warhol · 1975Auguste Rodin2 quotes
The artist must have the patience of water that eats away the rock drop by drop. — Auguste RodinI obey Nature, and never do I dare give orders to it. My only ambition is servile fidelity to it. — Auguste Rodin · 1910Chuck Close2 quotes
Inspiration is for amateurs-the rest of us just show up and get to work. — Chuck CloseWhat is it about people that since the dawn of time we've wanted to mark our presence so that other people will see it? — Chuck Close · 1998Claes Oldenburg2 quotes
I am for an art that tells you the time of day, or where such and such a street is. I am for an art that helps old ladies across the street. — Claes Oldenburg · 1961The erotic or the sexual is the root of "art"; its first impulse. — Claes OldenburgDavid Hockney2 quotes
Limitations are really good for you. They are a stimulant. If you were told to make a drawing of a tulip using five lines, or using a hundred, you'd have to be more inventive with the five. — David HockneyArt has to move you and design does not, unless it's a good design for a bus. — David Hockney · 1988Henri Matisse2 quotes
I want anyone tired, worn down, driven to the limits of endurance, to find calm and repose in my painting. — Henri Matisse · 1913What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of trouble and depressing subject matter. An art which might be for every mental worker, be he businessman or writer, like an appeasing influence, like a mental soother, something like a good armchair in which to rest from physical fatigue. — Henri Matisse · 1908Jackson Pollock2 quotes
The painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. — Jackson Pollock · 1948Painting is self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is. — Jackson PollockJoseph Beuys2 quotes
To be a teacher is my greatest work of art. — Joseph Beuys · 1969Even the act of peeling a potato can be a work of art if it is a conscious act. — Joseph Beuys · 1969Leonardo da Vinci2 quotes
Painting is poetry which is seen and not heard, and poetry is a painting which is heard but not seen. — Leonardo da Vinci · 1519This benign nature so provides that over all the world you find something to imitate. — Leonardo da Vinci · 1519Mark Rothko2 quotes
The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them. — Mark RothkoThe most important tool the artist fashions through constant practice is faith in his ability to produce miracles when they are needed. — Mark RothkoMichelangelo2 quotes
I've finished that chapel I was painting. The Pope is quite satisfied. — Michelangelo · 1512The marble not yet carved can hold the form
Of every thought the greatest artist has. — Michelangelo · 1564Paul Gauguin2 quotes
In art, there are only two types of people: revolutionaries and plagiarists. — Paul Gauguin · 1895A hint-don't paint too much direct from nature. Art is an abstraction! Study nature then brood on it and treasure the creation which will result, which is the only way to ascend towards God-to create like our Divine Master. — Paul Gauguin · 1888Paul Klee2 quotes
Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible. — Paul Klee · 1920Color has taken possession of me; no longer do I have to chase after it, I know that it has hold of me forever.. .Color and I are one. I am a painter. — Paul Klee · 1959Robert Rauschenberg2 quotes
Painting is the best way I've found to get along with myself. — Robert Rauschenberg · 2005A good collaboration produces universal thinking. — Robert Rauschenberg · 1987Vincent van Gogh2 quotes
I cannot help it that my pictures do not sell. Nevertheless the time will come when people will see that they are worth more than the price of the paint. — Vincent van Gogh · 1888The best pictures, and from a technical point of view, the most complete, seen from nearby, are but patches of color next to each other, and only make and effect at a certain distance. — Vincent van Gogh · 1885W.H. Auden2 quotes
Art is born of humiliation. — W.H. Auden · 1951Without Art, we should have no notion of the sacred; without Science, we should always worship false gods. — W.H. Auden · 1962Ad Reinhardt1 quote
Fine art can only be defined as exclusive, negative, absolute and timeless. It is not practical, useful, related, applicable, or subservient to anything else. — Ad Reinhardt · 1957Akira Kurosawa1 quote
To be an artist means never to avert one's eyes. — Akira KurosawaAl Capp1 quote
A product of the untalented, sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered. — Al Capp · 1963Albert, Prince Consort1 quote
The works of art, by being publicly exhibited and offered for sale, are becoming articles of trade, following as such the unreasoning laws of markets and fashion; and public and even private patronage is swayed by their tyrannical influence. — Albert, Prince Consort · 1851Alberto Giacometti1 quote
In a burning building...I would save a cat before a Rembrandt. — Alberto GiacomettiAlexander Pope1 quote
To wake the soul by tender strokes of art,
To raise the genius, and to mend the heart;
To make mankind, in conscious virtue bold,
Live o'er each scene, and be what they behold:
For this the tragic Muse first trod the stage. — Alexander Pope · 1713Arnold Newman1 quote
Everybody I have ever known or read about who was really a great artist has worked until they dropped dead. — Arnold Newman · 2009Bridget Riley1 quote
My work is completed by the viewer. — Bridget Riley · 2008Christian Boltanski1 quote
Museums have today become the new churches. — Christian Boltanski · 1997Christo1 quote
The greatness of art, like poetry or music, is that it is totally unnecessary. — Christo · 2011