Quotes About Art (Page 2)

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The real artist's work is a surprise to himself. ~ Robert Henri


The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands. ~ Leonardo da Vinci


As the sun colors flowers, so does art color life. ~ John Lubbock


Everything you can imagine is real. ~ Pablo Picasso


It's the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. ~ Oscar Wilde


Real art has the capacity to make us nervous. ~ Susan Sontag


A first rate soup is better than a second rate painting.  ~ Abraham Maslow


When I was a kis I drew like Michelangelo. It took me years to learn to draw like a kid. ~ Pablo Picasso


It has been said that art is a tryst, for in the joy of it maker and beholder meet. ~ Kojiro Tomita


As far as I am concerned, a painting speaks for itself. What is the use of giving explanations, when all is said and done? A painter has only one language. ~ Pablo Picasso


Artists must be sacrificed to their art. Like bees, they must put their lives into the sting they give. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson


Interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art. ~ Susan Sontag


Is an artist much more than a beggar? ~ Clara Schumann


There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people. ~ Vincent van Gogh


Art is not what you see, but what you make others see. ~ Edgar Degas


Art is a delayed echo. ~ George Santayana


Art is the only serious thing in the world. And the artist is the only person who is never serious. ~ Oscar Wilde


There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality. ~ Pablo Picasso


Art is the only way to run away without leaving home. ~ Twyla Tharp


A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light. ~ Leonardo da Vinci


Art not only imitates nature, but also completes its deficiencies. ~ Aristotle


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


Something is always born of excess: great art was born of great terror, great loneliness, great inhibitions, instabilities, and it always balances them. ~ Anaïs Nin


It is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and, as if by magic, we see a new meaning in it. ~ Anaïs Nin


Art is never finished, only abandoned. ~ Leonardo da Vinci


Great art changes you. ~ Sister Wendy Beckett


Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one. ~ Stella Adler


We artists are indestructible; even in a prison, or in a concentration camp, I would be almighty in my own world of art, even if I had to paint my pictures with my wet tongue on the dusty floor of my cell. ~ Pablo Picasso


The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. ~ Aristotle


Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. ~ Thomas Merton


A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light. ~ Leonardo da Vinci


We have art in order not to die of life. ~ Albert Camus


Treat a work of art like a prince: let it speak to you first. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer


An artist is his own fault. ~ John O'Hara


Art isn't something you marry, it's something you rape. ~ Egdar Degas


The idea is more important than the object. ~ Damien Hirst


A work of art that contains theories is like an object on which the price tag has been left.  ~ Marcel Proust


Art can excite, titillate, please, entertain, and sometime shock; but it's ultimate function is to ennoble. ~ Marya Mannes


Great art is cathartic; it is always moral. ~ Joyce Carol Oates


The artist who aims at perfection in everything achieves it in nothing.  ~ Eugene Delacroix


The history of modern art is also the history of the progressive loss of art's audience. Art has increasingly become the concern of the artists and the bafflement of the public.  ~ Paul Gauguin


My imagination can picture no fairer happiness than to continue living for art. ~ Clara Schumann


Art should cause violence to be set aside and it is only art that can accomplish this. ~ Leo Tolstoy


We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth at least the truth that is given us to understand. The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies. ~ Pablo Picasso


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