Progressive art can assist people to learn not only about the objective forces at work in the society in which read more

Progressive art can assist people to learn not only about the objective forces at work in the society in which they live, but also about the intensely social character of their interior lives. Ultimately, it can propel people toward social emancipation.

Immature artists imitate. Mature artists steal.

Immature artists imitate. Mature artists steal.

All that I desire to point out is the general principle that life imitates art far more than art imitates read more

All that I desire to point out is the general principle that life imitates art far more than art imitates life.

Everything that is beautiful and noble is the product of reason and calculation.

Everything that is beautiful and noble is the product of reason and calculation.

Art is good when it springs from necessity. This kind of origin is the guarantee of its value; there is read more

Art is good when it springs from necessity. This kind of origin is the guarantee of its value; there is no other.

Fine art, that exists for itself alone, is art in a final state of impotence. If nobody, including the artist, read more

Fine art, that exists for itself alone, is art in a final state of impotence. If nobody, including the artist, acknowledges art as a means of knowing the world, then art is relegated to a kind of rumpus room of the mind and the irresponsibility of the artist and the irrelevance of art to actual living becomes part and parcel of the practice of art.

The arts are not just instantaneous pleasure -- if you don't like it, the artist is wrong. I belong to read more

The arts are not just instantaneous pleasure -- if you don't like it, the artist is wrong. I belong to the generation which says if you don't like it, you don't understand and you ought to find out.

The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so read more

The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life.

My mother said to me, "If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, read more

My mother said to me, "If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope." Instead, I was a painter, and became Picasso.