The work of art, just like any fragment of human life considered in its deepest meaning, seems to me devoid read more

The work of art, just like any fragment of human life considered in its deepest meaning, seems to me devoid of value if it does not offer the hardness, the rigidity, the regularity, the luster on every interior and exterior facet, of the crystal.

The defining function of the artist is to cherish consciousness.

The defining function of the artist is to cherish consciousness.

Feminist art is not some tiny creek running off the great river of real art. It is not some crack read more

Feminist art is not some tiny creek running off the great river of real art. It is not some crack in an otherwise flawless stone. It is, quite spectacularly I think, art which is not based on the subjugation of one half of the species. It is art which will take the great human themes --love, death, heroism, suffering, history itself --and render them fully human. It may also, though perhaps our imaginations are so mutilated now that we are incapable even of the ambition, introduce a new theme, one as great and as rich as those others --should we call it "joy"?.

Every great work of art has two faces, one toward its own time and one toward the future, toward eternity.

Every great work of art has two faces, one toward its own time and one toward the future, toward eternity.

Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions: when it ceases to be dangerous you don't want it.

Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions: when it ceases to be dangerous you don't want it.

The refusal to rest content, the willingness to risk excess on behalf of one's obsessions, is what distinguishes artists from read more

The refusal to rest content, the willingness to risk excess on behalf of one's obsessions, is what distinguishes artists from entertainers, and what makes some artists adventurers on behalf of us all.

I choose a block of marble and chop off whatever I don't need.

I choose a block of marble and chop off whatever I don't need.

Twentieth-century art may start with nothing, but it flourishes by virtue of its belief in itself, in the possibility of read more

Twentieth-century art may start with nothing, but it flourishes by virtue of its belief in itself, in the possibility of control over what seems essentially uncontrollable, in the coherence of the inchoate, and in its ability to create its own values.

All autobiography is self-indulgent.

All autobiography is self-indulgent.