It seems strange to me that someone thought of making marble statues. I understand how you could see something in the root of a tree, a crack in the wall, in an eroded stone or pebble. But marble? It comes off in blocks and doesn’t evoke any image. It does not inspire. How could Michelangelo […]
Artists Quotes
People are always asking me to sign my old canvases. It’s ridiculous! In one way or another, I always marked my pictures. But there were times when I put my signature on the back of the canvas. All my works from the cubist period, until about 1914, have my name and the date on the […]
I put on my favorite music in my studio and paint. I pick up the brush, pick a color, put color on the canvas, answer it with another color and another, like musical improvisation. Suddenly, I have a painting. I know colors like some people know a melody. And the tunes of my favorite musicians […]
It was a special thrill to meet, paint and hang out with Ringo Starr. I painted a series of portraits of Ringo to celebrate his birthday one year. I also painted a Baldwin piano for him benefitting one of his charities, MusiCares, which helps musicians in times of need. I painted a second piano for […]
People do not know it because they are hypnotised by categories, but I am a much greater artist than Picasso; a much better draftsman.
Singing has always seemed to me the most perfect means of expression. It is so spontaneous. And after singing, I think the violin. Since I cannot sing, I paint.
The immature artist imitates. The mature artist steals.
If the man who paints only the tree, or flower, or other surface he sees before him were an artist, the king of artists would be the photographer. It is for the artist to do something beyond this.
To the artist there is never anything ugly in nature.
Paul explained that [the album cover concept for “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”] was like a band you might see in a park. So the cover shot could be a photograph of them as though they were a town band finishing a concert in a park, playing on a bandstand with a municipal flowerbed […]
