Top 98 Quotes & Sayings by Walter Darby Bannard - Page 2

Trying to be original is futile. If you have no place to go, stay home and cook.

There is no regional art. The only region left is the art magazine.

Postmodernism does not facilitate better art. It rationalizes inferior art by wrapping it in words - a suit of armor with nobody inside.

Making art is like swimming underwater in a blindfold.

When making a painting, only one thing counts: what you do next.

There's a big difference between grabbing attention and rewarding attention.

What is sublime? / the artist said. / I haven't time / to be well read. / To be sub lime / I'll place, instead, / green citrus fruit / upon my head.

The power of art is not in communication but effect; what it does, not what it relates.

Most people find facts irritating. Facts interfere with their systems of denial.

When you make the obvious mysterious, then the mysterious becomes unavailable.

When you write something new about science, other scientists may not like it but they pay attention because it is subject to proof. When you write something new about art, it is subject only to the reader's discomfort, and will probably be rejected.

It matters little if something is 'craft' or 'art.' The question is only this: does it give me pleasure?

The struggle to be original hates conformity, but the struggle to be better disregards it, or takes advantage of it to build workable conventions.

An ivory tower is a fine place as long as the door is open.

Dogmatism spreads its roots in the fertile soil of uncertainty.

We learn to lie by believing words rather than experience.

Truth is not always hard to find; it is often staring you in the face. The problem with truth is that it is hard to believe. It is even harder to get other people to believe.

Don't apologize, justify or rationalize bad art or bad writing. If you do, you are part of it.

There are too many artists, too many dealers and too much art.

Start a painting with fresh ideas, and then let the painting replace your ideas with its ideas.

Anything is OK in art if the art turns out OK.

Art is like a butterfly fluttering in a meadow. Analysis of art is like a butterfly on a pin. Each has its value, but we must always be aware of the difference, and what is gained or lost.

Good art looks new because the artist has recombined something old to make something better.

Art is not truth. Truth conforms to reality. Art invents reality.

Conceptual art' is an oxymoron. Concepts are articulations of fact or supposition, not attributes of quality.

When realistic images or patterns are seen in an abstract painting, they are often parallels brought about by processes in painting which echo processes in nature.

In art there is no absolute good or bad, but it is absolute that there is good and bad.

Art is making something better without knowing what better is until you make it.

When art writing seems incomprehensible, chances are it is.

Art that wants to be felt does not have the need to be admired.

Postmodernism does not help us understand good art. It encourages art that can be easily understood and throws in something catchy to cover the loss of mystery.

Stale artifacts of the past' are always 'active components of the present moment' when they are experienced in the present moment.

Good new art may not look like art. Inspiration doesn't follow style, it creates it.

You don't have to be a cave man to appreciate Lascaux.

Many years ago, Clement Greenberg said, 'All profoundly original work looks ugly at first.' This should be updated now to 'All profoundly ugly work looks original at first.

Most 'profound truths' are just timely ideas.

Art flows more easily when you are not thinking about what 'should' be in it or how it 'should' be done. The Impressionists taught us to look and see, not assume.

When you 'break all the barriers' you get a pile of rubble.