art quotes

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A good performance, like a human life, is a temporal affair—a process in time. It is good as a whole through being good in its p... - MORE A good performance, like a human life, is a temporal affair—a process in time. It is good as a whole through being good in its parts, and through their good order to one another. It cannot be called good as a whole until it is finished. During the process all we can say of it, if we speak precisely, is that it is becoming good. The same is true of a whole human life. Just as the whole performance never exists at any one time, but is a process of becoming, so a human life is also a performance in time and a process of becoming. And just as the goodness that attaches to the performance as a whole does not attach to any of its parts, so the goodness of a human life as a whole belongs to it alone, and not to any of its parts or phases.
Art is permitted to survive only if it renounces the right to be different, and integrates itself into the omnipotent realm of the... - MORE Art is permitted to survive only if it renounces the right to be different, and integrates itself into the omnipotent realm of the profane.
Twentieth-century art may start with nothing, but it flourishes by virtue of its belief in itself, in the possibility of control o... - MORE Twentieth-century art may start with nothing, but it flourishes by virtue of its belief in itself, in the possibility of control over what seems essentially uncontrollable, in the coherence of the inchoate, and in its ability to create its own values.
Art is an experience, not the formulation of a problem. Art is an experience, not the formulation of a problem.
... today ... photographers prefer disfigurement to adornment. It is now chic to do your worst to people. ... today ... photographers prefer disfigurement to adornment. It is now chic to do your worst to people.
I have always suspected that too much knowledge is a dangerous thing. It is a boon to people who don't have deep feelings; their p... - MORE I have always suspected that too much knowledge is a dangerous thing. It is a boon to people who don't have deep feelings; their pleasure comes from what they know about things, and their pride from showing off what they know. But this only emphasizes the difference between the artist and the scholar.
I have always rebelled against the unadorned, the unbefitting, the unawakened, the unresisting, the undesirable, the unplanned, th... - MORE I have always rebelled against the unadorned, the unbefitting, the unawakened, the unresisting, the undesirable, the unplanned, the unshapely, the uncommitted, the unattempted—all leading to the unintended. I believe in the unsubmissive, the unfaltering, the unassailable, the irresistible, the unbelievable—in other words, in an art of life.
Without poets, without artists, men would soon weary of nature's monotony. The sublime idea men have of the universe would collaps... - MORE Without poets, without artists, men would soon weary of nature's monotony. The sublime idea men have of the universe would collapse with dizzying speed. The order which we find in nature, and which is only an effect of art, would at once vanish. Everything would break up in chaos. There would be no seasons, no civilization, no thought, no humanity; even life would give way, and the impotent void would reign everywhere.
... we have almost succeeded in leveling all human activities to the common denominator of securing the necessities of life and pr... - MORE ... we have almost succeeded in leveling all human activities to the common denominator of securing the necessities of life and providing for their bundance. Whatever we do, we are supposed to do for the sake of "making a living;" such is the verdict of society, and the number of people, especially in the professions who might challenge it, has decreased rapidly. The only exception society is willing to grant is to the artist, who, strictly speaking, is the only "worker" left in a laboring society.
Art is identical with a state of capacity to make, involving a true course of reasoning. All art is concerned with coming into bei... - MORE Art is identical with a state of capacity to make, involving a true course of reasoning. All art is concerned with coming into being ... for art is concerned neither with things that are, or come into being, by necessity, nor with things that do so in accordance with nature.
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