Modern art is what happens when painters stop looking at girls and persuade themselves that they have a better idea.

Modern art is what happens when painters stop looking at girls and persuade themselves that they have a better idea.

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.

Mine was the role of the oilcan in making the machinery clunk around.

Mine was the role of the oilcan in making the machinery clunk around.

Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.

Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.

Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence.

Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence.

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.

Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.

Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.

The sculptor produces the beautiful statue by chipping away such parts of the marble block as are not needed - read more

The sculptor produces the beautiful statue by chipping away such parts of the marble block as are not needed - it is a process of elimination.

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.