Art Quotes

Here's one I might have cited elsewhere. Can't remember the source.
Do not reject art for its faults; reject it for its lack of merit (the only real fault).

JLN, I don't think we can "reject art for its lack of merit," because all of us see art differently. A case in point; I see most (with very few exceptions) modern art as junk, but people will pay thousands (if not millions) to buy some of them. If they don't see the "merit" on those art works, either I'm missing something or they see something I can't. On the other hand, those paying those thousands for modern art may not enjoy the kind of art I enjoy. Merit is very subjective.

C.I., you are undoubtedly right: art is PROFOUNDLY subjective. To me, that is the source of its power. I do not appreciate most "contemporary" art, but I love most "modern" art. The same is true for opera (except for its overtures, arias and duets). I acknowledge, however, that what I do not appreciate generally reflects MY limitations. You and I, therefore, would do well to expand ourselves to see what it is that modern art lovers and opera lovers are seeing that we are missing. But GIVEN that you and I do not subjectively respond to some forms of art, what we DO respond to we should do so on the basis of their merit, not their lack of faults.
Oops! We are turning this forum (a listing of quotations) into a regular discussion thread.

Quote, " You and I, therefore, would do well to expand ourselves to see what it is that modern art lovers and opera lovers are seeing that we are missing." Much truth in your statement, JLN. I think most of us are 'hard-wired' in a way we don't completely understand, and our attraction is a natrual tendency towards those things that please us. Sorta like animal attraction. <grin>

Part of why I posted... was to bring back a good thread. I think it's delightful to discuss quotes and even go further afield, as, say, we did, re Wolfe.

That sounds right, Osso. A quote can be a great springboard for good discussion.

"Art is...where the lie is sanctified and the will to deception has a good conscience."
Nietzsche (referring, I presume, mainly to representational art)

This statement from the mystic, Rumi, points to the fact that all of our life experience forms the basis of our art:

The Guest House

This being human is as a guest house,
Every morning, a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
Or some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all.
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows
Who violently sweep your house
Empty of its furniture.
Still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
Meet them at the door laughing
And invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes
Because each guest has been sent
As a guide from beyond.


Jelaluddin Rumi
(1207-1273)

I paint forms as I think them, not as I see them.
-Picasso

I think this is central to understanding Picasso AND modernist painting.

"We artists are indestructible; even in a prison...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

Sh*t, that excludes me.

Wimps are us.

Yep.

Here's another quote similar to the one by Picasso two posts back. It's by the famous student of Matisse, Max Weber:
"[I want to express] not what I see with my eye but with my consciousness . . . mental impressions, not mere literal matter-of-fact copying of line and form. I want to put the abstract into concrete terms."

That's heavy sh*t, man.
(pardon me; I can't resist the influence of Frank Apiso)

He's turned you to expletivification, has he?
F/k, I do it myself, offending friends and cousins every once in a while.
Once a lab tech, always a lab tech....

Yep, I let 'er rip at times, but JLN just doesn't do it with Frank's panache.

So much for my contribution to the art quotes thread--I do enjoy reading without posting and displaying my ignorance.

Hi, Diane. Long time no see. And you greet me with a compliment. Thanks. Havn't heard from Dys either.

Dys and Di are both alive alive-o on at least one other thread, which I'll give you a link to in a minute, but

I must add, that I suspect, JL, that you don't peruse the New Posts - upper right, on the right of screen.
Much of new posts is twaddle, but some catches interest.
One person's twaddle is another's yeasty mix. And none of us is always on top, re views.

Thils quotes applies, I think, to all forms of art:

"When the work of art opens its mouth, the author has to shut his."

-Nietzsche

A quote from Nietzsche that is great if not carried to the extreme:
"A genuinely creative act contains its own norms."
JLNobody

Thanks to Shepaints:

Seurat wrote:
"They see poetry in what I do, but I just apply my
method."

Here is one from Marguerite Yourcenar, author of MEMOIRS OF HADRIAN and the first female member of the French Academy:

"We cannot create, we arrange."

I like this one, because it applies to so many endeavors, artistic and otherwise, and it runs so very much deeper--and is so much more postive--than it looks at first glance. Vive arrangement!

I don't know if Yourcenar's remark is original to her, but she used it often. Maybe, one of you will know.

As the father of daughters, I loved reading about Madame Yourcenar's election to the Academy. Knowing how much this would mean to women in the arts, she went into a mode both Byzantine and Machiavellian to secure the place!

If you haven't yet read HADRIAN or FIRES (short pieces), you have a major treat in store.