Time extracts various values from a painter's work. When these values are exhausted the pictures are forgotten, and the more read more

Time extracts various values from a painter's work. When these values are exhausted the pictures are forgotten, and the more a picture has to give, the greater it is.

Only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible. I think it's in my basement... let me go upstairs read more

Only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible. I think it's in my basement... let me go upstairs and check.

As for types like my own, obscurely motivated by the conviction that our existence was worthless if we didn't make read more

As for types like my own, obscurely motivated by the conviction that our existence was worthless if we didn't make a turning point of it, we were assigned to the humanities, to poetry, philosophy, painting -- the nursery games of humankind, which had to be left behind when the age of science began. The humanities would be called upon to choose a wallpaper for the crypt, as the end drew near.

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.

The choirs left the main tune and soared two octaves past heaven in a descant to rattle the bones and read more

The choirs left the main tune and soared two octaves past heaven in a descant to rattle the bones and surge the heart.

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.

Painting, n.: The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather, and exposing them to the critic.

Painting, n.: The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather, and exposing them to the critic.

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

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

Art is permitted to survive only if it renounces the right to be different, and integrates itself into the omnipotent read more

Art is permitted to survive only if it renounces the right to be different, and integrates itself into the omnipotent realm of the profane.