Art Quotes

Arthur C. Danto, the philosopher and art critic for The Nation, wrote the following:

"In The Republic Socrates made the brilliant point that if what we wanted from art was an image of visual reality, what was the objection to holding a mirror up to whatever we wished to reproduce? "[You] will speedily produce the sun and all the things in the sky, and the earth and yourself and the other animals and implements and plants." And all this without benefit of manual skill!.

Nobody adds: Fortunately we expect much more from art (including representational art) than a mere "image of visual reality."

"Novelty, as distinct from originality, has no staying power."
Clement Greenberg

But it often makes money...

past that, innovation is a function of the drive for the new, as seems obvious by definition, and some products of that are .silly and some last, and some are interesting in themselves (to me).

I guess I quibble that every damn thing has to be original. Is that actually what art is about?

Originality is usually taken to be synonomous with novelty. I see it as closer in meaning (if not synonomous) to authenticity (or spontaneity, sincerity, expressivity, etc.).

(Of course) I agree with you.

I keep plastering it until it comes around to what I want, in terms of all I know and think about painting now, as well as in terms of the initial observation. (Richard Diebenkorn)

source - art quotes from painterskeys.com

Thanks, nice quote. Diebenkorn was an honest unpretentious person, and it shows in this quote. I like to say that regarding a painting, I just WORK IT UNTIL IT WORKS. Sounds not too dissimilar.
Thanks also for the link. I'll check it out now.

"When I paint, I never think of selling. People simply fail to understand that we paint in order to experiment and to develop ourselves as we strive for greater heights."
<Munch (on that).

Brilliant thread, thanks guys.

Yes, TPQ. I just read the last few pages of this thread, and I'm glad I did.

I give this a belated 'yay'.

Now I've reread the whole thread. I'm biased, but wow.
I think that even if I were antipathetic to us discussers, it'd be interesting.

Édouard Boubat, Notebooks (1958).

That may be said also of Human Reality as a cultural construction. We live in a world essentially of our making.

D'accord!