Quotes About Art

The underlying sense of form in my work has been the system of the Universe, or part thereof. For that is a rather large model to work from.

In the sky we had rediscovered the moving principle of any work of art: the light, and the motion of color.

In order not to cut out a large part of one's private life, the creative work should not swallow up every other form of self-expression. But that is the most complicated thing.

I have not collected art. Art collected me. I never found paintings. They found me. I have never even owned a work of art. They owned me.

I like keeping my work so open that it can be interpreted on different levels. Art can't be compared with journalism; it can't discuss concrete issues.

The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who'll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work.

I don't wait for inspiration. I'm not, in fact, quite sure what inspiration is, but I'm sure that if it is going to turn up, my having started work is the precondition of its arrival.

I know that the creator will go, but his work survives. That is why to escape death, I attempt to bind my soul to my work.

It was the only thing I had to do. I worked to get rid of the time, even now I work for something to do. Painting is a wonderful way of getting rid of the days.

Mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependence on ritual.

I work in waves, because I'm impatient. Because of a certain physicality, of lack of breath from standing. It has to be done and I do take liberties I wouldn't have taken before.

Just as I work with paints, brushes, and canvas, I work with the light, pieces of glass and chemistry.

One curator said he didn't want my work in his gallery because it was so simple even children understood it. I thought, what a wonderful tribute!

I want to be a living work of art.

I have never been able to carry out any work coolly. On the contrary it is done, so to speak, with my own blood. Anyone who looks at my works must be able to sense that.

The discussion about whether photography is or isn't art is dated and of no interest. Your work makes you an artist, not your title.

When I make my work, I am making what I hope to be something functional - a space for individual contemplation and reflection. I want my art to be useful.

Conceptual art, for me, means work in which the idea is paramount and the material form is secondary, lightweight, ephemeral, cheap, unpretentious and/or 'dematerialized'

I think you have to use your eyes as well as your emotion, and one without the other just doesn't work

To complete a work is just like being present at the death of someone you love.

I don't work from nature, I work like nature.

I await joyous surprises while working, an awakening of the materials that I work with and that my spirit develops.

You have to have something to put your work in otherwise it's not valid

Once it is out of his hand the artist has no control over the way a viewer will perceive the work. Different people will understand the same thing in a different way.