“as school teacher and lay preacher near London”
#art
40 quotes
“If I should find something it will probably be a position between clergy man and missionary in the suburbs of London among the working people. Do not speak to anybody about it yet. In his letter to brother Theo from Welwyn, England, 17 June 1876; as quoted in Vincent van Gogh , edited by Alfred H. Barr ; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1935, p. 17”
“My dear Theo, Feeling, even a fine feeling, for the beauties of nature isn't the same as religious feeling, although I believe that the two are closely connected. The same is true of a feeling for art. Don't give in to that too much either. Hold fast especially to your love for the firm [of the Paris' art dealers Goupil & C0 , where both brothers worked”
“There was a sale here [in Paris] of drawings by Millet , I don't know whether I've already written to you about it. When I entered the room in Hôtel Drouot where they were exhibited, I felt something akin to: 'Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground' [Bible”
“Some time ago I saw a painting by Thijs Maris [= Matthijs Maris , one of the three brothers Maris, all three famous Dutch impressionist painters of the Hague School ] that reminded me of it. An old Dutch town with rows of brownish red houses with step”
“I've got nature and art and poetry, and if that isn't enough, what is? From a letter to his brother Theo van Gogh, January 1874 [6]”
“Always continue walking a lot and loving nature, for that’s the real way to learn to understand art better and better. Painters understand nature and love it, and teach us to see. From a letter to his brother Theo van Gogh, January 1874 [5]”
“Vindt maar mooi zooveel je kunt, de meesten vinden niet genoeg mooi. Find things beautiful as much as you can, most people find too little beautiful. From a letter to his brother Theo van Gogh, January 1874 [4]”
“Vincent's profession then was picture dealer at Goupil and Co. , with branches a. o. in The Hague, London and Paris”
“I am sure you will like it, it is such a fine business [art”
“The idea of research has often made painting go astray, and made the artist lose himself in mental lucubrations. Perhaps this has been the principal fault of modern art. The spirit of research has poisoned those who have not fully understood all the positive and conclusive elements in modern art and has made them attempt to paint the invisible and, therefore, the unpaintable.”
“Mathematics , trigonometry , chemistry , psychoanalysis , music , and what not have been related to cubism to give it an easier interpretation. All this has been pure literature , not to say nonsense, which brought bad results, blinding people with theories. Cubism has kept itself within the limits and limitations of painting, never pretending to go beyond it.”
“Many think that Cubism is an art of transition, an experiment which is to bring ulterior results. Those who think that way have not understood it. Cubism is not either a seed or a foetus, but an art dealing primarily with forms, and when a form is realized it is there to live its own life. A mineral substance, having geometric formation, is not made so for transitory purposes, it is to remain what it is and will always have its own form. p. 323.”
“Variation does not mean evolution. If an artist varies his mode of expression this only means that he has changed his manner of thinking, and in changing, it might be for the better or it might be for the worse. p. 391.”
“Cubism is no different from any other school of painting. The same principles and the same elements are common to all. The fact that for a long time cubism has not been understood and that even today there are people who cannot see anything in it, means nothing. I do not read English, and an English book is a blank to me. This does not mean that the English language does not exist, and why should I blame anyone but myself if I cannot understand what I know nothing about? p. 319.”
“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. If he only shows in his work that he has searched, and re”
“I can hardly understand the importance given to the word research in connection with modern painting. In my opinion to search means nothing in painting. To find is the thing. Nobody is interested in following a man who, with his eyes fixed on the ground, spends his life looking for the purse that fortune should put in his path. The one who finds something no matter what it might be, even if his intention were not to search for it, at least arouses our curiosity, if not our admiration. p. 315”
“They speak of naturalism in opposition to modern painting . I would like to know if anyone has ever seen a natural work of art. Nature and art , being two different things, cannot be the same thing. Through art we express our conception of what nature is not. Velasquez left us his idea of the people of his epoch. Undoubtedly they were different from what he painted them, but we cannot conceive a Philip IV in any other way than the one Velasquez painted... [Paris 1923]. As quoted in Futurism , ed. Didier Ottinger; Centre Pompidou / 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2008, p. 312”
“When I hear people speak of the evolution of an artist, it seems to me that they are considering him standing between two mirrors that face each other and reproduce his image an infinite number of times, and that they contemplate the successive images of one mirror as his past, and the images of the other mirror as his future, while his real image is taken as his present. They do not consider that they all are the same images in different planes... [Paris 1923]. As quoted in Futurism , ed. Didier Ottinger; Centre Pompidou / 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2008, p. 311”
“Among the several sins that I have been accused of committing, none is more false than the one that I have, as the principal objective in my work, the spirit of research . When I paint my object is to show what I have found and not what I am looking for. In art intentions are not sufficient and, as we say in Spanish , love must be proved by facts and not by reasons... [Paris 1923]. As quoted in Futurism , ed. Didier Ottinger; Centre Pompidou / 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2008, p. 311”
“truovasi di miglio i(n) miglio bone osteriee. ( Ancient Italian ) You can find good taverns from mile to mile.”
“Subito salse in me due cose: paura e desiderio: paura per la minacciante e scura spelonca, desiderio per vedere se là entro fusse alcuna miracolosa cosa. ( Ancient Italian ) At once two things came to mind: fear and desire: fear of the threatening dark cave, desire to see if there was anything miraculous within it.(referring to the "Cave of Acquabianca" or "La Ferrera" on Lake Comuntain).”
“Fa vini potenti e assai, … e ‘l vino vale el più uno soldo il boccale e la libbra della vitella un soldo e ‘l sale 10 dinari, e ‘l simile il burro, ed è la loro libbra 30 once, e l’ova un soldo la soldata. ( Modern Italian ) He makes powerful and very strong wines, … and the wine is worth more than a penny per jug and the pound of veal a penny and the salt 10 denarii, and so is the butter, and their pound is 30 ounces, and the eggs a penny.”
“It is the infinite alone that cannot be attained, for if it could it would become finite. Thoughts on Art and Life , by Leonardo da Vinci ,”
“As a day well spent makes sleep seem pleasant, so a life well employed makes death pleasant. A life well spent is long.”
“Thou, O God, sellest us all benefits, at the cost of our toil....”
“Look at the grace and sweetness of men and women in the street...”
“The painter strives and competes with nature...There is nothing in all nature without its reason. If you know the reason, you do not need the experience...”
“Oysters open completely when the moon is full; and when the crab sees one it throws a piece of stone or seaweed into it and the oyster cannot close again so that it serves the crab for meat. Such is the fate of him who opens his mouth too much and thereby puts himself at the mercy of the listener. As quoted in The 48 Laws of Power (2000) by Robert Greene, p. 33”
“Painting is poetry which is seen and not heard, and poetry is a painting which is heard but not seen. These two arts, you may call them both either poetry or painting, have here interchanged the senses by which they penetrate to the intellect . A Treatise on Painting (1651); "The Paragone"; compiled by Francesco Melzi prior to 1542, first published as Trattato della pittura by Raffaelo du Fresne”
“Mexican Autobiography”
“Since Trotsky came to Mexico I have understood his error. I was never a Trotskyist. Diary illustration, dated 4 November 1952 [3] [4]”
“I have suffered two grave accidents in my life, one in which a streetcar knocked me down... The other accident is Diego. Quote in Imagen de Frida Kahlo by Gisèle Freund in Novedades (Mexico City)”
“México en la Cultura”
“In 1946 Frida painted 'The Little Deer', her self”
“I am a poor little deer. written line on a photograph she gave Diego.”
“Una pintora extraordinaria,”
“I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim. Quote in a letter to Ella Wolfe , "Wednesday 13," 1938, as cited in Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera (1983) ISBN 0”
“I’m more and more convinced it’s only through communism that we can become human. Quote of Frida Kahlo, in her letter from US, during the 1930s, from [1]”
“A little while ago, not much more than a few days ago, I was a child who went about in a world of colors, of hard and tangible forms. Everything was mysterious and something was hidden, guessing what it was was a game for me. If you knew how terrible it is to know suddenly, as if a bolt of lightning elucidated the earth. Now I live in a painful planet, transparent as ice; but it is as if I had learned everything at once in seconds. Quote of Frida Kahlo, in her letter to Alejandro Gómez Arias, 29 September 1926”