When Michelangelo finished the painting of the Sistine Chapel's ceiling, he spent the rest of his life trying to remove read more

When Michelangelo finished the painting of the Sistine Chapel's ceiling, he spent the rest of his life trying to remove the paint that had poured into his sleeve.

You don't take a photograph, you make it.

You don't take a photograph, you make it.

Being born is like being kidnapped. And then sold into slavery.

Being born is like being kidnapped. And then sold into slavery.

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.

The irrepressible spirit that made his playing seem like good conversation is the Rubinstein legacy for pianists, if they can read more

The irrepressible spirit that made his playing seem like good conversation is the Rubinstein legacy for pianists, if they can pick up their heads from the keyboard long enough to claim it.

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.

In a decaying society, art, if it is truthful, must also reflect decay. And unless it wants to break faith read more

In a decaying society, art, if it is truthful, must also reflect decay. And unless it wants to break faith with its social function, art must show the world as changeable. And help to change it.

That is what the title of artist means: one who perceives more than his fellows, and who records more than read more

That is what the title of artist means: one who perceives more than his fellows, and who records more than he has seen.

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.