Art Quotes

When this girl at the art museum asked me whom I liked better, Monet or Manet, I said, “I like mayonnaise.” She just stared at me, so I said it again, louder. Then she left. I guess she went to try to find some mayonnaise for me.

Art is not a thing; it is a way.

A painter told me that nobody could draw a tree without in some sort becoming a tree; or draw a child by studying the outlines of its form merely, but by watching for a time his motions and plays, the painter enters into his nature and can then draw him at every attitude.

Love art. Of all lies, it is the least untrue.

The artists must be sacrificed to their art. Like the bees, they must put their lives into the sting they give.

Do not imagine you can exorcise what oppresses you in life by giving vent to it in art.

Perpetual modernness is the measure of merit in every work of art.

Human life is a sad show, undoubtedly: ugly, heavy and complex. Art has no other end, for people of feeling, than to conjure away the burden and bitterness.

Classic art was the art of necessity: modern romantic art bears the stamp of caprice and chance.

The artist must no more appear in his work than God in nature.