A Quote by Margaret Atwood

Popular art is the dream of society; it does not examine itself.

Margaret Atwood

Quote Topics

Art Art Is Does Dream Examine Itself Popular Society

Quote Author

Margaret Atwood
Canadian - Novelist
Born: November 18, 1939

Art can no longer be art today if it does not reach into the heart of our present culture and work transformatively within it that is, an art which cannot mould society — and through this naturally operate upon the core questions of our society — is not art.

Joseph Beuys

Does political correctness have a good side? Yes, it does, for it makes us re-examine attitudes, and that is always useful. The trouble is that, with all popular movements, the lunatic fringe so quickly ceases to be a fringe; the tail begins to wag the dog. For every woman or man who is quietly and sensibly using the idea to examine our assumptions, there are twenty rabble-rousers whose real motive is desire for power over others. The fact that they see themselves as antiracists or feminists or whatever does not make them any less rabble-rousers.

Doris Lessing

The Chinese art world does not exist. In a society that restricts individual freedoms and violates human rights, anything that calls itself creative or independent is a pretence. It is impossible for a totalitarian society to create anything with passion and imagination.

Ai Weiwei

Every society needs to examine itself in relation to other societies.

Paulo Freire

The most subtle art, the strongest and deepest art - supreme art - is the one that does not at first allow itself to be recognized.

Andre Gide

Justice must always question itself, just as society can exist only by means of the work it does on itself and on its institutions.

Michel Foucault

Art does not exist for itself; it is but an avenue through and by which humanity expresses itself.

Gutzon Borglum

Graphic design is a popular art and a practical art, an applied art and an ancient art. Simply put, it is the art of visualizing ideas.

Jessica Helfand

(There is) art that states the problems of society and wakes people up to make changes in their lives or in their communities,...art that offers an alternative, that demonstrates human behavior that can become a model for creativity, cooperation, freedom and playfulness, and...art that in itself provides glimpses of a larger consciousness or reflects upon the inexplicable.

Meredith Monk

Contrary to popular stereotypes, seeking simplicity doesn't require that you become a monk, a subsistence forager, or a wild-eyed revolutionary. Nor does it mean that you must unconditionally avoid the role of consumer. Rather, simplicity merely requires a bit of personal sacrifice: an adjustment of your habits and routines within consumer society itself.

Rolf Potts

The true artist does not create art as an end in itself; he creates art for human beings. Humanity is the goal.

Bronislaw Huberman

Before the Conquest all art was of the people, and popular art has never ceased to exist in Mexico. The art called popular is fugitive in character, with less of the impersonal and intellectual characteristics of the schools. It is the work of talent nourished by personal experience and that of the community - rather than being taken from the experiences of painters in other times and other cultures.

Manuel Alvarez Bravo

If an artist does not have an erotic involvement with everything that he sees, he may as well give up. To be a human being may a very messy thing, but to be an artist is something else entirely, because art is religion, art is sex, art is society. Art is everything.

Lucas Samaras

[But if things continue the way they are] ...the society that I envision, if my dream is not just a false notion, this society will have to begin to create itself in the midst of fuss, noisiness and panic, and will have to face the prospects of both internal and external war.

Ahad Ha'am

Examine what you do and examine what other women do. Examine the dreams that men hold of you and how they force you in a corner, literally and figuratively.