Art Quotes

Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one.

An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose.

Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.

Of what use were the arts if they were only the reproduction and the imitation of life?

Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos.

An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision.

Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together.

Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.

The beauty one can find in art is one of the pitifully few real and lasting products of human endeavor.

I cry out for order and find it only in art.

All art is but imitation of nature.

Life is short, the art long.

Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.

I prefer drawing to talking. Drawing is faster, and leaves less room for lies.

If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.

An artist is forced by others to paint out of his own free will.

In a decaying society, art, if it is truthful, must also reflect decay. And unless it wants to break faith with its social function, art must show the world as changeable. And help to change it.

Art is making something out of nothing and selling it.

All art is a struggle to be, in a particular sort of way, virtuous.

Art is either plagiarism or revolution.