Quotes About Art

The Bible is a work of art. Were it not art, were it simply an instruction manual, it would not satisfy or convince, and very likely would not have survived. So, to be faithful to the original work, which in Greek is normally chanted in churches, as the Torah is chanted in the temple and the Qu'ran is melismatically chanted in the mosque… the Bible here must resonate.

Ideally, poetry in translation should one day lead a reader to a reading of the poem in the original tongue. The poem in its native phonemes, we often forget, was primarily a poem, and a good one, presumably, if chosen for translation. A poem in translation should be faithful, if to anything, to this primary quality of the original—that of its being an effective poem.

Somehow, even the slightest words and phrases of Sappho yield her voice.

Every film is political. Most political of all are those that pretend not to be: 'entertainment' movies. They are the most political films there are because they dismiss the possibility of change. In every frame they tell you everything's fine the way it is. They are a continual advertisement for things as they are.

That's how it begins, making a film, writing a book, painting a picture, composing a tune, generally creating something. You have a wish. You wish that something might exist, and then you work on it until it does.

For me, black and white is more realistic than colour. Black and white can be colourful, and colour can be very black and white.

When you paint, try to put down exactly what you see. Whatever else you have to offer will come out anyway.

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

We often hear military experts inculcate the doctrine of giving priority to the decisive theatre. There is a lot in this. But in war this principle, like all others, is governed by facts and circumstances; otherwise strategy would be too easy. It would become a drill-book and not an art; it would depend upon rules and not on an instructed and fortunate judgment of the proportions of an ever-changing scene.

We cannot aspire to masterpieces. We may content ourselves with a joy ride in a paint-box. And for this Audacity is the only ticket.

Art is to beauty what honour is to honesty, an unnatural allotropic form.

Because, wherever I have looked, I see that all things are perpetually referred to an eternal standard of fitness, and that right triumphs over wrong, truth over falsehood, beauty over ugliness. Fitness is the general expression! Judged by this standard art and honour have little value.

No two cities have counted more with mankind than Athens and Jerusalem. Their messages in religion, philosophy, and art have been the main guiding lights of modern faith and culture.

One begins to see, for instance, that painting a picture is like fighting a battle; and trying to paint a picture is, I suppose, like trying to fight a battle. It is, if anything, more exciting than fighting it successfully. But the principle is the same.

Painting is complete as a distraction. I know of nothing which, without exhausting the body more entirely absorbs the mind.

It meant that to create was a fundament, to appreciate, a supplement.

in painted quiet and concentration

Eve from the rib, Venus from foam, Minerva from Jupiter's head – All three were more real than me. When he isn't looking at me, I try to catch my reflection on the wall. And I see the nail where a picture used to be.

Even poetry has its prosaic side.

If he [the Artist] were to take up the pen it would be...to better express his individuality and explain it to others; or else to put his internal affairs in order...to deepen and sharpen his relationship with his fellow men because other souls exert an immense and creative influence on our soul; or to try to fight for a world as he would like it to be, for a world that is indispensable to his life.

Literatura powa?na nie jest po to, ?eby u?atwia? ?ycie, tylko ?eby je utrudnia?.

Na gruncie sztuki to odmienne (powiedziaÅ'bym: niechÄ™tne, lekcewa??ce) podejÅ›cie do formy mo?e zapewni? odnowienie i rozszerzenie Å›rodków artystycznego wyrazu. ProklamujÄ…c wszÄ™dzie gdzie siÄ™ da, zasadÄ™, ?e czÅ'owiek jest wy?szy od swoich wytworów, dostarczam swobody, jakiej bardzo potrzebuje dzisiaj nasza pokurczona dusza.

Nauczyciele, wychowawcy, kierownicy duchowi? W istocie, oni nauczyli czytelnika polskiego tej prawdy o literaturze, ?e ona jest czymÅ› w rodzaju szkolnych wypracowaÅ", pisanych po to aby belfer mógÅ' postawi? stopieÅ" [...] SÄ… to mistrzowie trywializacji, artyÅ›ci w przemienianiu ostrego ?ycia w nudnÄ… papkÄ™, gdzie wszystko jest mnie wiÄ™cej równie mierne i niewa?ne.

An excessive respect for scientific truth has obscured our own truth. In our eagerness to understand reality, we forget that we are not here to understand reality, but only to express it. We, art, are reality. Art is a fact and not commentary attached to fact.