Quotes about art
Welcome to our Art collection, an immersion into the realm of creativity, expression, and the intricate language that transcends words. In this curated compilation of quotes, we venture into the enchanting world of art, celebrating its diversity, the emotions it evokes, and the profound impact it has on our perceptions.
Art is more than mere visuals; it's a portal to emotions, a bridge between cultures, and a canvas for shared human experiences. Our Art quotes honor the vision of artists, the stories that unfold in brushstrokes and melodies, and the way art intertwines with life itself.
Whether you're an admirer of paintings that speak to the soul, captivated by the power of music to move hearts, or simply intrigued by the intersections of creativity and the human spirit, these quotes offer insights into the transformative nature and the myriad forms of art.
Embark on a journey that explores the colors of emotion, the symphony of imagination, and the dialogues that emerge from artistic endeavors. Discover the narratives of artists, the universal language of visual and performing arts, and the boundless interpretations that arise when creativity encounters the canvas of the world.
D.T. Suzuki
— Pioneer of Zen Buddhism in the WestThe greatest productions of art, whether painting, music, sculpture or poetry, have invariably this quality-something approaching the work of God.
Joseph Kosuth
— American conceptual artistMaking something new to look at is a futile and empty act if its only audience is the eyes.
Napoleon Bonaparte
— French military and political leaderThe great art of governing consists in not letting men grow old in their jobs.
David Hume
— Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, historian, economist, librarian and essayistAnd though the philosopher may live remote from business, the genius of philosophy, if carefully cultivated by several, must gradually diffuse itself throughout the whole society, and bestow a similar correctness on every art and calling.
Erykah Badu
— American singer-songwriter, record producer and actressI think we (with Riccardo Tisci) share a sensibility about art - we pull from the ancient future.
Clive Bell
— English art critic, associated with formalism and the Bloomsbury GroupIt is the mark of great art that its appeal is universal and eternal.............. Great art remains stable and unobscure because the feelings that it awakens are independent of time and place, because its kingdom is not of this world. To those who have and hold a sense of the significance of form what does it matter whether the forms that move them were created in Paris the day before yesterday or in Babylon fifty centuries ago? The forms of art are inexhaustible; but all lead by the same road of aesthetic emotion to the same world of aesthetic ecstasy.
Alexander Pope
— English poet, translator, and satirist of the Augustan periodI believe it is no wrong Observation, that Persons of Genius, and those who are most capable of Art, are always fond of Nature, as such are chiefly sensible, that all Art consists in the Imitation and Study of Nature. On the contrary, People of the common Level of Understanding are principally delighted with the Little Niceties and Fantastical Operations of Art, and constantly think that finest which is least Natural.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorWhen I was very little, four or five, I did comic strip drawings, so my first novel had no words. I couldn't write and thought adult handwriting was a mysterious scribble. When I was 14, my grandmother gave me a typewriter and I started writing in a different way.
Jorge Luis Borges
— WriterGod must not engage in theology. The writer must not destroy by human reasonings the faith that art requires of us.
Patricia Piccinini
— ArtistI don't set out to make something that is repulsive and that would scare people. I know that some people don't like what I make, and don't find it cute, but that's hard for me to understand.
Joseph Kosuth
— American conceptual artistUnlike the marks of a painting, the photo seems to organize its 'opinions' in relation to the world; even when the photographs have clearly been manipulated, the 'opinions' seem to have all the more force, with the suggested 'participation of the world' articulating that 'opinion' as a difference.
Napoleon Bonaparte
— French military and political leaderThe most difficult art is not in the choice of men, but in giving to the men chosen the highest service of which they are capable.
Erykah Badu
— American singer-songwriter, record producer and actressAnything that had to do with art I been doing all my life. It was a gift. It's nothing I work real hard at doing.
Clive Bell
— English art critic, associated with formalism and the Bloomsbury GroupLet the artist have just enough to eat, and the tools of this trade: ask nothing of him. Materially make the life of the artist sufficiently miserable to be unattractive, and no-one will take to art save those in whom the divine daemon is absolute.
Alexander Pope
— English poet, translator, and satirist of the Augustan periodAll nature is but art unknown to thee.
David Hume
— Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, historian, economist, librarian and essayistA persons utmost art and industry can never equal the meanest of nature's productions, either for beauty or value.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorArt is fueled by rebellion: the need, in some amounting to obsessions, to resist what is, to defy one's elders, even to the point of ostracism; to define oneself, and by extension one's generation, as new, novel, ungovernable.
Jorge Luis Borges
— WriterThe art of writing is mysterious, the opinions we hold are ephemeral.
Patricia Piccinini
— ArtistI feel that there's hardly any irony in my work; if there's anything, there'll be sincerity, which people sometimes find hard to deal with.
Joseph Kosuth
— American conceptual artistPhotography, as an invention, was both art and science. The view it gave us of the world was in some measure acceptable because it was a product of our vision of the world; and it did so as part of the same process which seemed to impart 'truth': science.
Napoleon Bonaparte
— French military and political leaderIn a battle, as in a siege, the art consists in concentrating very heavy fire on a particular point. The line of battle once established, the one who has the ability to concentrate an unlooked for mass of artillery suddenly and unexpectedly on one of these points is sure to carry the day.
Erykah Badu
— American singer-songwriter, record producer and actressI know the community mostly for its art and culture... and of course its food, I eat at their restaurants." "They make you feel like taking off your shoes... it feels like home.
Clive Bell
— English art critic, associated with formalism and the Bloomsbury GroupArt and Religion are, then, two roads by which men escape from circumstance to ecstasy. Between aesthetic and religious rapture there is a family alliance. Art and Religion are means to similar states of mind.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorThe ideal art, the noblest of art: working with the complexities of life, refusing to simplify, to "overcome" doubt.
Jorge Luis Borges
— WriterMir Bahadur Ali is, as we have seen, incapable of evading the most vulgar of art's temptations: that of being a genius.
Patricia Piccinini
— ArtistIt's interesting to work with what's important today, which is meaningful for our everyday lives.
Napoleon Bonaparte
— French military and political leaderIf the art of war were nothing but the art of avoiding risks, glory would become the prey of mediocre minds.... I have made all the calculations; fate will do the rest.
Erykah Badu
— American singer-songwriter, record producer and actressI'm free. I just do what I want, say what I want, say how I feel, and I don't try to hurt nobody. I just try to make sure that I don't compromise my art in any kind of way, and I think people respect that.
Clive Bell
— English art critic, associated with formalism and the Bloomsbury GroupThere must be some one quality without which a work of art cannot exist; possessing which, in the least degree, no work is altogether worthless.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorIf food is poetry, is not poetry also food?
Jorge Luis Borges
— WriterI'm not interested in the fact that a writer may label himself as being intellectual or anti-intellectual. l'm really interested in the stuff he's turning out.
Patricia Piccinini
— ArtistI don't think 'Dark Heart' has to be malevolent. It conveys a sense of depth. There is a sense of questioning turmoil.
Napoleon Bonaparte
— French military and political leaderThe art of choosing men is not nearly so difficult as the art of enabling those chosen to attain their full worth.
Clive Bell
— English art critic, associated with formalism and the Bloomsbury GroupWe all agree now - by 'we' I mean intelligent people under sixty - that a work of art is like a rose. A rose is not beautiful because it is like something else. Neither is a work of art. Roses and works of art are beautiful in themselves.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorI believe that art is the highest expression of the human spirit. I believe that we yearn to transcend the merely finite and ephemeral; to participate in something mysterious and communal called 'culture' - and that this yearning is as strong in our species as the yearning to reproduce the species.
Patricia Piccinini
— ArtistIf there are moments in my work when people find joy and humour, that's a real success for me.
Napoleon Bonaparte
— French military and political leaderIn war there is but one favorable moment; the great art is to seize it!
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorI believe that any form of art is a species of exploration and transgression. ... Art by its nature is a transgressive act, and artists must accept being punished for it. The more original and unsettling their art, the more devastating the punishment.
Patricia Piccinini
— ArtistI use whatever media I think will best express my ideas and therefore I don't have a lot invested in the idea of photography specifically. I am more interested in Art.
Napoleon Bonaparte
— French military and political leaderYou must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorI think all art comes out of conflict. When I write I am always looking for the dramatic kernel of an event, the junctures of people's lives when they go in one direction, not another.
Patricia Piccinini
— ArtistMaterials are very important to me, and always have been.
Napoleon Bonaparte
— French military and political leaderThe art of war is to gain time when your strength is inferior.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorMy belief is that art should not be comforting; for comfort, we have mass entertainment and one another. Art should provoke, disturb, arouse our emotions, expand our sympathies in directions we may not anticipate and may not even wish.
Patricia Piccinini
— ArtistI finished VCA at the height of the last big recession in the early 90s, and seeing that I was not going to be able to join one of the dwindling number of commercial galleries, I started an ARI called the Basement Project which ran for three years. Things came a little at a time and all of a sudden it's 20 years later and I'm still making art, which is really all I ever wanted to do.
Napoleon Bonaparte
— French military and political leaderThe art of being sometimes audacious and sometimes very prudent is the secret of success.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorLiterature, art, like civilization itself, are only accidents.
Patricia Piccinini
— ArtistI put a lot of time and thought into my work, which I see as a sort of respect for both the work and the audience, and I have always been very concerned that the materiality of the work reflects that.
Napoleon Bonaparte
— French military and political leaderRead over and over again the campaigns of Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, Gustavus, Turenne, Eugene and Frederic. ... This is the only way to become a great general and master the secrets of the art of war.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorWithout craft, art remains private. Without art, craft is merely hackwork.
Patricia Piccinini
— ArtistNow that other people have my works, it's really important to me that what they have has longevity.
Napoleon Bonaparte
— French military and political leaderStrategy is the art of making use of time and space. I am less concerned about the later than the former. Space we can recover, lost time never.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorI don't think that any 'ism' is higher than literature or art. So I'm a formalist. I greatly honor and respect the form of a work.
Patricia Piccinini
— ArtistFor one work we developed a human hair felt, which involved collecting and sorting hundreds of kilos of human hair, and then blending it will a tiny percentage of black merino followed by carding and felting.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorI think it's very important for writers and artists generally to be witnesses to the world, and to be transparent. To let other people speak... to travel... to experience the world. And memorialize it.
Patricia Piccinini
— ArtistObviously, I don't make an entire edition all at once, so the studio often goes back to produce editions, but that's a bit different. I guess I'm always thinking about the next work.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorThe greatest works of literature seem to embody both "art" and "morality".
Patricia Piccinini
— ArtistOf course, all my work is photographed and I also take quite a lot of photographs of work in production.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorArt is the highest expression of the human spirit.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorArt is about freedom of expression, and should not be molded to fit any propaganda or lofty ideal.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorCan compromise be an art? Yes--but a minor art.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorSelf-criticism is an art not many are qualified to practice.