Top 19 Quotes & Sayings by Henry Flynt

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American artist Henry Flynt.

Last updated on December 21, 2024.

Henry Flynt is an American philosopher, musician, writer, activist, and artist connected to the 1960s New York avant-garde. He coined the term "concept art" in the early 1960s, during which time he was associated with figures in the Fluxus scene. He later received attention for his anti-art demonstrations against New York cultural institutions in 1963 and 1964.

American - Artist | Born: 1940

Source: Wikipedia

When I began competing with the other artists in New York, I discovered classical North Indian music.

Henry Flynt

I was a student at Harvard, and that's where I learned about so-called avant-garde music. Jackson Pollock, abstract expressionism and painting were well known at this time.

Henry Flynt

In classical oil painting, there seemed to be a radical turn to seeing things as the camera sees them, with that technological modification. I began to have a tremendous problem with all of this.

Henry Flynt

Rock became an incredible commercial success, people just became bored with serious music, and it was forgotten.

Henry Flynt

When somebody says that all statements are false, the obvious problem is that as an assertion it's self-defeating.

Henry Flynt

Around 1967 I began backing away from dogmatic Leninism, not so much because I thought it was false, I just decided there was nothing utopian about it.

Henry Flynt

At the same time, I was listening to black music, and I began to think that the best musicians were receiving the worst treatment. The people who were doing the greatest work were despised as lower class, with no dignity accorded to what they did.

Henry Flynt

I began composing works which were imitative of the music I was being told about. I was also very interested in translating the music into visual terms.

Henry Flynt

Since 'concepts' are closely bound up with language, concept art is a kind of art of which the material is language.

Henry Flynt

The whole drive of western culture, the part of it which is serious, is towards an extreme objectification. It's carried to the point where the human subject is treated almost as if it's dirt in the works of a watch.

Henry Flynt

I have a picture of an ideal consciousness.

Henry Flynt

I'm trying to assemble materials for a different mode of life.

Henry Flynt

I'm actually a great fan of lucidity.

Henry Flynt

I began demonstrating against serious culture. In hindsight, the actual course of events has been very humiliating for me, because no one picked up on the intellectual critique I made.

Henry Flynt

When I came to New York, I began to meet the people who became the most famous artists of our time. I was insecure about my own level of ability, I didn't know whether I could compete with these people and, at the same time. I was wondering what is this anyway?

Henry Flynt

Basically, I viewed any work of art as an imposition of another person's taste, and saw the individual making this imposition as a kind of dictator.

Henry Flynt

Basically, at this time, I viewed any work of art as an imposition of another person's taste and saw the individual making this imposition as a kind of dictator.

Henry Flynt

A fully open mind could shatter the skull in both directions.

Henry Flynt