#painting
181 quotes
“An artist who sees that the imitation of natural appearances, however artistic, is not for him”
“..the works of Mozart . They create a welcome pause amidst the storms of our inner life, a vision of consolation and hope, but we hear them like sounds of another, vanished and essential unfamiliar age. Clashing discords, loss of equilibrium.. Quote from: On the Spiritual in Art , 1911; as cited in Schönberg and Kandinsky: An Historic Encounter , by Klaus Kropfinger; edited by Konrad Boehmer; published by Routledge (imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informal company), 2003, p. 17”
“At the moment there is a great tendency in painting to discover the 'new' harmony by constructive means whereby the rhythmic is built on an almost geometric form.. .I am certain that our own modern harmony is not to be found in the 'geometric' way, but rather in the anti”
“Kandinsky visited a concert with music of Schönberg on 11 Jan. 1911 with Franz Marc , Alexej von Jawlensky , Gabriele Münter and others; they played compositions, Schönberg wrote in 1907 and 1909: his second string quartet and the 'Three piano pieces'”
“In your [ composer Schönberg's ] works, you have realized what I, albeit in uncertain form, have so greatly longed for in music. The independent progress through their own destinies, the independent life of the individual voices in your compositions, is exactly what I am trying to find in my painting. in his letter to Arnold Schönberg , 18 Jan. 1911; as cited in Schonberg and Kandinsky: An Historic Encounter , by Klaus Kropfinger; edited by Konrad Boehmer; published by Routledge (imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informal company), 2003, p. 9”
“[ Schoenberg's ] music leads us into a realm where musical experience is a matter not of the ear but of the soul alone, and at this point the music of the future begins. Quote of Kandinsky, 1911; in Concerning the Spiritual in Art , transl. Michael T. Sadler (1914); reprint. New York: Dover, 1977), p. 17”
“Opposites and contradictions, that is our harmony. German original: Gegensätze und Widerspruche, dass ist unsere Harmonie. short quote, 1911; as cited in schönberg and Kandinsky: An Historic Encounter , by Klaus Kropfinger; ed. Konrad Boehmer; published by Routledge (imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informal company), 2003, p. 9, note 1”
“Mystery, speaking through mysteries. Isn't that meaning? Isn't that the conscious or unconsciousnes purpose of the compulsive urge to create? Quote, c. 1910; as cited by de:Wolf”
“The impressions we receive, which often appear merely chaotic, consist of three elements; the impression of the color of the object, its form, and of its combined color and form, i.e., of the object itself. At this point the individuality of the artist comes to the front and disposes, as he wills, these three elements. It is clear, therefore, that the choice of object (i.e., of one of the elements in the harmony of form) must be decided only by a corresponding vibration in the human soul.. Quote of Kandinsky, Munich, 1910; as cited in Artists on Art”
“Frankly, I think there is something wrong with Jawlensky 's dots [in his paintings, then]. Anybody can pick up that style if they want to. Quote of Kandinsky, c 1903; as cited by de:Wolf”
“as school teacher and lay preacher near London”
“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”
“It is under such cultural circumstances that our contemporaries, systematically cretinised by the mechanicism and the architecture of auto”
“The Italian metaphysical movement [initiated by De Chirico ] started from the spiritual reality, a consequence of the physical miracle and it aspects grouped on an immaterial plane; all this formed a new spectral reality, in order to attain maximal, almost erotic creativity in touch. The Cubists , on the other hand, starting from this sensual”
“One might think that through ecstasy we would have access to a world as far from reality as that of the dream.”
“In the early 1930's Dalí was judged by a surrealist 'high court' at André Breton 's flat; Dali was accused of 'counter”
“So, André Breton , if tonight I dream I am screwing you, tomorrow morning I will paint all of our best fucking positions with the greatest wealth of detail. Quote, early 1930's; as quoted by Jonathan Jones in his article 'André in wonderland'; The Guardian / Culture, 16 June, 2004”
“One morning with Ripolin [French paint] I painted a new”
“The more I looked at his face [of Saint Sebastian ] the more curious it seemed. That said, I seemed to have always known it and the aseptic morning light revealed its smallest details which such clarity, such purity, that I was impossible moved.. .In the upper part of the heliometer was St. Sebastian's magnifying glass.. .I put my eye to the magnifying glass, product of a slow distillation, at once numerical and intuitive. Each drop of water a number. Each drop of blood a geometry. Quote from his poem 'Sant Sebastia', Salvador Dali 1927”
“Dali is striving then for a rational approach of his paintings; he is very probably referring to his painting, he made earlier in 1927: ' Little Ashes'”
“Just now I'm painting a beautiful woman, smiling, burnt to a crisp, with feathers of all colors, held up by a small die of burning marble; the die is in turn held up by a little puff of smoke, churned and quite; in the sky there are asses with parrot”
“Telephone, pedal washbasin, white refrigerators gleaming with Ripolin [French paint], bidet, small phonograph.. ..objects of authentic and pure poetry (MPC p. 11).. ..The Parthenon was not built as a ruin. It was built on a new surface without patina, like our automobiles. / we will not always bear on our shoulders the weight of our father's corpse. Quote, 1920's; MPC p. 13; as quoted in Dali and Me , Catherine Millet ,”
“Because of the great zeal and devotion which I experienced in executing well the two pictures which His Highness commissioned me to make”
“Rembrandt emphasizes here the urge for a place with bright light, necessary to view his painting well. Not certain is which painting by Rembrandt is meant here.”
“My [dear] Sir: Let me first offer my kind regards. I agree that I should come soon to see how the picture accords with the rest. As regards the price, I certainly deserve 200 pounds for it, but shall be content with whatever His Excellency pays me. And if you, Sir, do not deem it presumptuous, I shall not neglect to requite the favor. Your humble and devoted servant Rembrandt”
“I cannot refrain from presenting you, [dear] Sir, my latest work.”
“..that I am very diligently engaged in proficiently completing the three Passion paintings which his Excellency has personally commissioned me [to do]: an Entombment [6] , a Resurrection, and an Ascension of Christ.. .Of the above three, one has been completed, namely Christ's Ascension to Heaven, and the other two are more than half”
“version in original Dutch (origineel citaat van Rembrandt, in Nederlands): Een vroom gemoet / Acht eer voor goet”
“A pious mind / Places honor above wealth”
“this short quote is written at the bottom in a portrait”
“Quote in original Dutch (citaat van Rembrandt in Nederlands): Dit is naer mijn huijsvrou geconterfeit do si 21 jaer oud was, den derden dach als wij getroudt waeren, den 8 junijus 1633 Rembrandt's inscription under a drawing of his wife Saskia, 1633; as cited in Rembrandt: The Painter at Work , by Ernst van de Wetering , Amsterdam University Press, 1997, p. 47”
“This is portrayed after my wife when she was 21 years old, the third day after we were betrothed, on the 8th of June 1633 [3]”
“A great sentiment can be rendered immediately. Dream on it and look for the simplest form in which you can express it. p. 5: Letter to Emile Schuffenecker ,”
“Don't copy nature too closely. Art is an abstraction; as you dream amide nature, extrapolate art from it and concentrate on what you will create as a result. pp. 5 & 22: Gauguin is advising a fellow painter, 1885”
“freely and madly; you will make progress.. .Above all, don't sweat over a painting; a great sentiment can be rendered immediately..”
“Gauguin is referring to the painting Breton Calvary: The Green Christ .”
“With this painting , I tried to make everything breathe faith, quiet suffering, religious and primitive style and great nature with its scream. in a letter to Theo van Gogh (1889”
“Quote from a conversation in 1888, Pont”
“How do you see this tree? Is it really green? Use green, then, the most beautiful green on your palette. And that shadow, rather blue? Don't be afraid to paint it as blue as possible. Comment voyez”
“This Cézanne [a 'Still life with Compotier, Fruit and Glass', Cézanne made c. 1879”
“Gauguin accepted membership in the Societe Anonyme Cooperative des Artistes Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs, formed in 1873 by Pissarro, Claude Monet , Pierre”
“My Dear Mr. Pissarro ;”
“remark to Vincent van Gogh , ca. 1886 in Paris. Van Gogh showed Cezanne some of his recent paintings, he recently made in Paris”
“You positively paint like a madman. As quoted in: 'Mercure de France', 16 December 1908, p. 607”
“I saw Monet and Renoir at about the end of December; they had been on holiday in Genoa, in Italy. Quote in Cezanne's letter to Emile Zola , 23rd February 1884; as quoted in Renoir”
“I had the company of monsieur Gibert. Such people see clearly, but they have the teacher's eye. As the train was taking us past Alexis' place a staggering subject for a picture came into view towards the east: St”
“'The very opposite of 'modeling' meant roughly that Cézanne and Pissarro in their common painting”
“Listen, monsieur Vollard , I worked a lot out of doors at L'Estaque . Except for that there was no other event of importance in my life during the years 1870”
“At Aix ( Aix en Provence ) I am not free; whenever I want to return to Paris , I always have to put up a fight, and, although your (his father) opposition may not be absolute, I am always deeply affected by the resistance that I encounter from you. I sincerely want my liberty unfettered.. ..it would give me great pleasure to work in the Midi, some aspects of which offer many resources to the painter; there I would be able to attack some of the problems that I wish to solve. Quote in Cezanne's letter to his father in Aix; ca. 1871”
“He (the painter Manet ) hits of the tone.. ..but his work lacks unity and temperament too. (ca. 1863) Quote in: Cézanne , by Ambroise Vollard , Dover publications Inc. New York, 1984, p. 27”
“Don't you think your Corot [to Guilemet the painter] is a little short on temperament? I'm painting a portrait of Vallabreque; the highlight on the nose is pure vermilion [remark of Cezanne ca. 1860] Quote in: Cézanne , by Ambroise Vollard , Dover publications Inc. New York, 1984, p. 28”
“I've ripped it to pieces; your portrait, you know. I tried to work on it this morning, but it went from bad to worse, so I destroyed it.. Quote of Cezanne, from his letter to Emile Zola , ca 1861; as quoted in Cezanne , by Ambroise Vollard , Dover publications Inc. New York, 1984, p. 23”
“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”
“The anecdote is also described in William Stanyon, Bible Stories & Parables, with a Lesson On, What is Religion? (1884), p. 18 but is only attributed to "a sculptor" and not to Michelangelo specifically.”
“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free. Widely attributed but of uncertain provenance. The anecdote of Michelangelo "seeing the angel" is related in Ambition: A Journal of Inspiration to Self Help (January 1916), Volume 11 Issue 1; and in Walter Clemow Lanyon , London Notes and Lectures (1928), p. 13.”
“Every beauty which is seen here below by persons of perception resembles more than anything else that celestial source from which we all are come.”
“Translation: That fount of mercy, whence we all exist, Every beauty seen here [on earth] resembles, More than anything else to knowing persons; Translated by Luciano Rebay, Invitation to Italian Poetry (1969), p. 77”
“Veggio nel tuo bel viso, Signor mio”
“As when, O lady mine, With chiseled touch The stone unhewn and cold Becomes a living mold, The more the marble wastes, The more the statue grows. Sonnet addressed to Vittoria Colonna ; tr. Mrs. Henry Roscoe (Maria Fletcher Roscoe), Vittoria Colonna: Her Life and Poems (1868), p. 169.”
“I was never the kind of painter or sculptor who kept a shop. As quoted in In Our Time : The Artist , BBC Radio 4 (28 March 2002).”
“As quoted in Character Sketches: Or, The Blackboard Mirror (1890) by George Augustus Lofton , p. 432.”
“Beauty is the purgation of superfluities. Letter to Rene Lui Descartes XIV”
“the quill cannot express good will.”
“I accept the fact that the important painting of the last hundred years was done in France. American painters have generally missed the point of modern painting from beginning to end.. .Thus the fact that good European moderns [European artists who lived in the U.S. because of the Nazi”
“My work with Benton was important as something against which to react very strongly, later on; in this, it was better to have worked with him than with a less resistant personality who would have provided a much less strong opposition. At the same time Benton introduced me to Renaissance art. [remark on his former art”
“I can control the flow of paint; there is no accident.. Quoted in Ines Janet Engelmann Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner , Munich: Prestel Verlag (2007), p. 54”
“Pollock wrote this text on the back of a photo of himself taken in his own studio.”
“Technic is the result of a need new needs demand new technics total control denial of the accident States of order organic intensity energy and motion made visible memories arrested in space, human needs and motives acceptance Quote around 1948”
“When I am in my painting, I am not aware of what I'm doing. It is only after a short of 'get acquainted' period that I see what I have been about. I have no fears about making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well. In 'Possibilities', Vol. 1, no 1, winter 1947”
“Jackson Pollock: is he the greatest living painter in the United States?”
“It came into existence because I had to paint it. Any attempt on my part to say something about it, to attempt explanation of the inexplicable, could only destroy it. [1947, on his painting 'She wolf'] As quoted in David Anfam Abstract Expressionism , London: Thames and Hudson (1990), p. 87”
“I believe easel painting to be a dying form, and the tendency of modern feeling is toward the wall picture or mural.. In his application for a grant given by the Guggenheim Foundation 1944; as quoted in Barbara Hess Abstract expressionism , Cologne: Taschen (2006), p. 9”
“As to what I would like to be. It is difficult to say. An Artist of some kind. If nothing else I shall always study the Arts. People have always frightened and bored me, consequently I have been within my own shell and have not accomplished anything materially. Quote in Pollock's letter, Los Angeles (October 22, 1929) to Charles and Frank published in Jackson Pollock & Family (2011) American Letters: 1927”
“What I am after, above all, is expression. Sometimes it has been conceded that I have a certain technical ability but that, my ambition being limited, I am unable to proceed beyond a purely visual satisfaction such as can be procured from the mere sight of a picture. But the purpose of a painter must not be conceived as separate from his pictorial means, and these pictorial means must be the more complete (I do not mean complicated) the deeper is his thought. I am unable to distinguish between the feeling I have for life and my way of expressing it. pp. 409”
“Suppose I want to paint a woman's body: first of all I imbue it with grace and charm, but I know that I must give something more. I will condense the meaning of this body by seeking its essential lines. The charm will be less apparent at first glance, but it must eventually emerge from the new image which will have a broader meaning, one more fully human. p. 48”
“The simplest means are those which best enable an artist to express himself. His means of expression must derive almost all of necessity from his temperament. p. 39”
“What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity, devoid of troubling or disturbing subject matter, an art which could be for every mental worker, for the businessman as well as the man of letters, for example, a soothing, calming influence on the mind, something like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue. p. 38”
“There is an impelling proportion of tones that may lead me to change the shape of a figure or to transform my composition. Until I have achieved this proportion in all the parts of a composition I strive towards it and keep on working. Then a moment comes when all the parts have found their definite relationships, and from then on it would be impossible for me to add a stroke to my picture without having to repaint it entirely. p. 38”
“I simply try to put down colours which render my sensation. p. 38”
“For me all is in the conception. I must therefore have a clear vision of the whole from the beginning. p. 37”
“Underlying this succession of moments which constitutes the superficial existence of beings and things, and which is continually modifying and transforming them, one can search for a truer, more essential character, which the artist will seize so that he may give to reality a more lasting interpretation. p. 37”
“Rules have no existence outside of individuals: otherwise a good professor would be as great a genius as Racine . p. 2”
“I see with horror that the 'Salon Automne' is looming, for I haven't got, and shan't have, all I meant to be able to show there, the big stillife ['Harmony in Red'] has taken up so much of my time; but since I am content with the outcome, I tell myself one can't hope to be fast as well as good. Letter to Sergei Shchukin [the Russian buyer of his still”
“Gold is the color of eternity.”
“I have never painted a self-portrait. I am less interested in myself.”
“Beauty is an expression of the soul.”
“My paintings are my biography.”
“The decorative arts are the equal of the fine arts.”
“There is nothing special about me. I am a painter who paints day after day.”
“I am less interested in myself as a subject for painting than I am in other people, above all women.”
“Whoever wants to know something about me — as an artist, the only notable thing — ought to look at my pictures.”
“All art is erotic.”
“Art is a line around your thoughts.”
“School and things that painters have taught me even keep me from painting as I want to. I decided I was a very stupid fool not to be at least paint as I wanted to and say what I wanted to when I painted as that seemed to be the only thing I could do that didn't concern anybody but myself.. .I found that I could say things with colour and shapes that I couldn't say in any other way things that I had no words for. 'Foreword' of the catalogue for the show at the Anderson Galleries in New York, 1926”
“I thought you could write something about me that men can't”
“I have been thinking of what you say about form.. .I feel that a real living form is the natural result of the individual’s effort to create the living thing out of the adventure of his spirit into the unknown.. ..and from that experience comes the desire to make the unknown known. By unknown I mean the thing that means so much to the person that he want to put it down”
“As I opened the door”
“The plains are very wonderful now”
“Walked way out in the plains in the moonlight”
“Your letter became before I was up this morning”
“Last night I couldn't sleep till after four in the morning”
“Today I walked into the sunset”
“Anita, I have just come the comforting conclusion that I'll have to paint acres and acres of water color landscapes before I will look for even a passably fair one. After about ten attempts”
“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”
“Me es muy odioso inventar para otro... Fray Manuel (Bayeu) no necesita que otro le invente”
“La casa es la sepultura de las mujeres”
“El mayor enemigo de los aragoneses son los aragoneses”
“By painting colours and lines and forms seen in a quickened mood I was seeking to make this mood vibrate as a phonograph does. In: Diary Saint Cloud, 1898; Munch, as quoted in Edvard Much”
“Nothing ceases to exist”
“Realism's 'truth' as embodied in painting and literature now solely consists of things capable of being seen by the eye or heard by the ear. Realism is concerned only with the external shell of nature. People content with the discoveries they have made ignore the fact that there are other things to be discovered, even broader avenues to be explored. They have found bacteria, but not what they consist of. [quote of 1892) OKK 1760 (Nice, January 1892); as quoted in Edvard Much”
“I was walking along a path with two friends”
“When seen as a whole, art derives from a person's desire to communicate himself to another. I do not believe in an art which is not forced into existence by a human being’s desire to open his heart. All art, literature, and music must be born in your heart’s blood. Art is your heart’s blood. Manuscript (1891); as quoted in Edvard Munch and the Physiology of Symbolism (2002) by Shelley Wood Cordulack”
“Quotes from his text: 'Saint Cloud Manifesto', Munch (1889): as quoted in Edvard Much”
“I thought I should make something”
“No longer shall I paint interiors with men reading and women knitting. I will paint living people who breathe and feel and suffer and love. Quote from Munch's text (1889) 'Impressions from a ballroom, New Year's Eve in St. Cloud'”
“Life here [in Paris, 1885] is quite different. You hardly ever see a dog on a lead; you come across little wagons being pulled by dogs that are often so small that you can't imagine how on earth they manage to shift such enormous weights. You see shepherdesses in the middle of the street herding goats and sometimes playing on their flutes. I think I'll go to the Louvre and the Salon today. Quote in Munch's letter (1885); as cited in Edvard Munchs Brev, Familien , Oslo: Tanum, 1949, p. 57”
“I am at work on a girl . It is quite simple a girl getting up on the edge of her bed and pulling on her stockings. The bed is whitish, and in addition there are white sheets, a white nightdress, a bedside table with a white cover, white curtains and a blue wall. [as model for his painting 'Morning', 1884] Quote in Munch's letter to Olav Paulsen , September 1884; as cited in Edvard Much”
“Nota: Comentario de Manet a Antonin Proust en 1862.”
“I have had Three Masters”
“Velazquez's remark is to the Italian contemporary painter Salvator Rosa”
“Raphael , to be plain with you, for I prefer to be candid and outspoken, does not please me at all.. ..It is Titian that bears the banner. As quoted by Hugh Stokes in Francisco Goya , Herbert Jenkins Limited Publishers, London, 1914, p 71”
“Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933, and almost immediately the Left press in the United States began to publish cartoons hostile to his regime. But throughout the decade barely a handful of artists, whatever their political preferences, addressed the increasingly virulent outbreaks of anti”
“Later on, I learned about the Mexican muralists that painted beautiful images on the walls of public buildings. Diego Rivera , Orozco, Tamayo, and others. Alfredo Arreguín letter”
“Diego Rivera: A Man and His Murals”
“Here in Mexico…I find that very simple intuitive persons, in common with a highly sophisticated and prepared type, accept my way of painting. But the bourgeois mind (here as elsewhere called “cultured,” I believe does not. This bourgeois mind of Mexico is that of a special virulence, for being mixed in race for only a few generations, it is also lamentably mixed in its ‘culture.’ It is, in a word, saturated with European bad taste, the finer European influences having been almost wholly rejected by the Creole of Mexico… On how his work was received Mexico”
“When we began, we had no opportunities; we prepared in silence and created our own opportunity. On making your own artistic opportunities in the book Conversations with Diego Rivera: The Monster in His Labyrinth”
“The point is not to paint life, but to make painting alive.”
“I follow nature without being able to grasp her.”
“I must have flowers, always, and always.”
“The light changes constantly, and only the artist can capture it.”
“Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand.”
“I'm not performing miracles, I'm using up a lot of paint.”
“The richness I achieve comes from nature, the source of my inspiration.”
“Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment.”
“My life has been nothing but a failure.”
“In Paris one is too preoccupied by what one sees and what one hears, however strong one is; what I am doing here has, I think, the merit of not resembling anyone, because it is simply the expression of what I myself have experienced. in a letter to Frédéric Bazille from Etretat , December 1868; as cited in: Mary Tompkins Lewis (2007) Critical Readings in Impressionism and Post”
“One is too taken up with all that one sees and hears in Paris, however strong one is, and what I do here will at least have the merit of being unlike anyone else, at least I believe so, because it will simply be the expression of what I, and only I have felt. The further I get, the more I regret how little I know, that's what hinders me the most.. .I don't think I will spend much time in Paris now, a month at the very most, each year. in a letter to Frédéric Bazille ; as quoted in: K.E. Sullivan. Monet: Discovering Art, Brockhampton press, London (2004), p. 31.”
“There at the moment in Honfleur .. . Boudin and Jongkind are here; we get on marvelously. There's lots to be learned and nature begins to grow beautiful.. .I shall tell you I'm sending a flower picture to the exhibition at Rouen; there are very beautiful flowers at present. in a letter to Frédéric Bazille ; as cited in: Edward B. Henning, Cleveland Museum of Art. Creativity in art and science, 1860”
“It seems to me, when I see nature, that I see it ready made, completely written”
“It is beautiful here [in Etretat , Normandy], my friend; every day I discover even more beautiful things. It is intoxicating me, and I want to paint it all”
“By way of news, I can tell you that Couture , that bad”
“'..learn to draw: that's where most of you [Troyon's pupils] are falling down today.. ..draw with all your might; you can never learn too much. However, don’t neglect painting, go to the country from time to time and make studies and above all develop them..' [Monet is quoting in his letter Troyon , a friend of Boudin in Paris] in a letter to Eugène Boudin , 1859; as quoted in Discovering Art,”
“Monet wrote Boudin this letter just after he visited the 1859 Salon .”
“Among Troyon 's paintings there are two huge ones; Return to the Farm is marvelous with its beautiful stormy sky. There is much windy motion in the clouds, and the cows and dogs are very good. In Going to the Market you see the mist at sunrise. It's superb and, most of all, very luminous. The wide space in View from Surennes is amazing. You feel you are really in the countryside. 1859 letter to Eugène Boudin , June 3, 1859; as cited in Rodolphe Rapetti (1990) Monet, p. 11”
“I am surrounded by a small group of young landscapists who will be very happy get to know you. Besides, they are real painters... I find myself very well fixed here. I am drawing figures at hard. And at the Academy , there are only landscapists. They begin to perceive that it's a good thing. Quote of Monet, 1859 in a letter to his mentor Eugène Boudin ; as cited in: John Rewald (1961) The History of Impressionism”
“Painting is a way of seeing the soul.”
“There is no beauty without darkness.”
“The chiaroscuro of life is what gives it meaning.”
“Art must be born from observation, not imagination.”
“I seek the divine in the ordinary.”
“To paint is to capture a moment of truth.”
“Every brushstroke is a prayer.”
“The shadows are as important as the light.”
“I paint what I see, not what others want to see.”
“Good paintings are like good friends — they stay with you forever.”