AN ARTIST IS EVERYONE
'Artist' is a title of great weight.1 An artist is making something
exist by observing it.2 The artist does not tinker with the universe,
he recreates it out of his own experience and understanding of life.3 Subjective artists are one-eyed, but objective artists are blind.4 An
artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision.5 All artists are
illusionists of one kind or another.6 What the rest of us see only
under the influence of mescalin, the artist is congenitally equipped
to see all the time.7 The artist must know the manner whereby to
convince others of the truthfulness of his lies.8 The stupid believe
that to be truthful is easy; only the artist, the great artist, knows
how difficult it is.9
What an artist is trying to do for people is bring them closer to
something, because of course art is about sharing: you wouldn't be an
artist if you didn't want to share an experience, a thought.10 Art
should not be a space shut in on itself, but rather a magnetic field
that attracts the energies of artists into space, and possibly into
the cities in which they circulate.11
Although an artist sets out to convey a viewpoint or emotion, that is
not to say that the viewpoint or emotion has a single meaning.12 The
role of the artist is to ask questions, not answer them.13 The artist
must say it without saying it.14 The artist simply reveals, he doesn't
explain.15 The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.16 Only
he is an artist who can make a riddle out of a solution.17
The point of art is participation, by the artist in his work of making
the artwork, by the observer in his work of making the artwork a part
of his consciousness.18 It's artists that set the agenda.19 It is our
function as artists to make the spectator see the world our way not
his way.20 All in all, the creative act is not performed by the artist
alone; the spectator brings the work into contact with the external
world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and
thus adds his contribution to the creative act.21
In order for the artist to have a world to express he must first be
situated in this world, oppressed or oppressing, resigned or
rebellious, a man among men.22 The artist is not an outcast from
society, not a maladjusted, stubborn, impassioned fugitive from
civilization.23 In any society, the artist has a responsibility.24
The idea that an artist might be able to make things 'better' is still
a very commonly held notion.25 What the artist owes the world is his
work; not a model for living.26 The true artist can never be pressured
by society; his compelling art shirks-off all pressure except the
pressure of Art!27 Under any kind of regulation, an artist can always
find his creative space.28 If an artist is touched by some social
condition, what the artist creates will reflect that, but you can't
force it.29 Artists are not engineers of the soul.30
An artist should distance himself from power so that he can think
independently.31 When we see ourselves as artists, we no longer feel the
need to impose our story on others or to defend what we believe.32 The
artist is the opposite of the politically minded individual, the
opposite of the reformer, the opposite of the idealist.33 The form of
government that is most suitable to the artist is no government at
all.34 All Artists are Anarchists.35
For an artist freedom is as undispensable as talent or intelligence.36
Artists talk a lot about freedom.37 However, an artist is not free to do
as he or she pleases and works, in fact, under definite historical and
historically shaped intellectual conditions.38 Left on his own, free to
do anything he likes, the artist ends up doing nothing at all.39 Some
sort of pressure must exist; the artist exists because the world is
not perfect.40 The artist is not a person endowed with free will who
seeks his own ends, but one who allows art to realize its purpose
through him.41
The artist is likely to be looked upon with some uneasiness by the
more conservative members of society.42 Artists are the antennae of the
race, but the bullet-headed many will never learn to trust the great
artists.43 It is frequently the tragedy of the great artist, as it is of
the great scientist, that he frightens the ordinary man.44 Artists are
seen as one step above criminals.45 Artists themselves are not
confined, but their output is.46 It's interesting to see the world's
fascination with a troubled artist.47 The artist is the world's
scapegoat.48 An artist is his own fault.49 An artist has to pay for the
gift of his genius.50 The artists must be sacrificed to their art.51
Most artists are doing basically the same thing - staying off the
streets.52 Artists usually don't make all that much money, and they
often keep their artistic hobby despite the money rather than due to
it.53 True artists are almost the only men who do their work for
pleasure.54 The reward of art is not fame or success but intoxication:
that is why so many bad artists are unable to give it up.55
An artist is someone who produces things that people don't need to
have but that he - for some reason - thinks it would be a good idea to
give them.56 Well, artists don't produce anything useful or practical
for society.57 Society pays the artist for that which enriches life, the
artist uses the money to buy time to continue this work.58 On the whole,
money does artists much more good than harm.59 Artists who speak
negatively about commercial success never had any.60
Being a successful artist takes hard work, patience and good
networking skills.61 As an artist you're looking for universal triggers.62
To stand out, the artist must either really believe in something and
pursue it regardless of consequences, or the artist must figure out
something that'll simply get attention.63 And, moreover, to succeed,
the artist must possess the courageous soul.64 Being a good artist is
the toughest job you could pick, and you have to be a little nuts to
take it on.65 Until you get to a certain point, being an artist is no
luxury.66 If you think you are an artist you must be a fighter.67
As artists get wealthier and more famous, often their work gets
worse.68 Not all, but too many of the best writers, composers, and
artists of our time begin to be acclaimed only when they no longer
have anything to say and take to performing instead of stating.69 To be
an artist is not about fame; it's about art, which is this intangible
thing that has got to have lots of integrity, whereas being famous
doesn't really take any integrity.70
The term 'giant' is used too often to describe artists.71 An artist is
no bigger than the size of his mind.72 An artist earns the right to call
himself a creator only when he admits to himself that he is but an
instrument.73 To be an artist is, by its nature, a spiritual endeavor.74
But no artist is a church.75 What an artist does in the studio is more
primordial than religion.76
The artist should never try to be popular.77 An artist discovers his
genius the day he dares not to please.78 The concept that an artist
would be revered by popular culture is an immediate dismissal of his
relevance as an artist.79 Flattery of the people and incapacity to
resist public opinion are the democratic vices, particularly among
writers, artists, journalists and anyone else who is dependent on an
audience.80 As an artist, one must strive to become independent of
judgment and familiar with the "ways of the Dragon".81
That is the mystery of the artist in the world: simultaneously servant
and soothsayer.82 The artist is still a little like the old court
jester.83 The sociability of artists is a paradoxical and precarious
thing, and ceases the instant they begin their actual artistic work.84
When artists make art, they shouldn't question whether it is
permissible to do one thing or another.85 The great artists of the world
are never Puritans, and seldom even ordinarily respectable.86 In art,
the only one who really knows whether what you've done is honest is
the artist.87
One doesn't need to know the artist's private intentions.88 The artist
must be in his work as God is in creation, invisible and all-powerful;
one must sense him everywhere but never see him.89 The artist, like the
God of creation, remains within or behind or beyond or above his
handiwork, invisible, refined out of existence, indifferent, paring
his fingernails.90 God and other artists are always a little obscure.91
Being an artist is being an isolated individual.92 All artists are
self-sacrificing human beings, and to become an artist is nothing but
to devote oneself to the subterranean gods.93 The artist one day falls
through a hole in the brambles, and from that moment he is following
the dark rapids of an underground river which may sometimes flow so
near to the surface that the laughing picnic parties are heard above.94
To be an artist is to disappear in a way.95
The progress of an artist is a continual self-sacrifice, a continual
extinction of personality.96 Good artists exist simply in what they
make, and consequently are perfectly uninteresting in what they are.97
What's an artist, but the dregs of his work - the human shambles that
follows it around?98 The artist does not exist except as a
personification, a figure of speech that represents the sum total of
art itself.99 Artists are, above all, men who want to become inhuman.100
As a human being the artist may have many moods and a will and
personal aims, but as an artist he is 'man' in a higher sense - he is
'collective man' - one who carries and shapes the unconscious, psychic
life of mankind.101 An artist is only an artist on condition that he
neglects no aspect of his dual nature.102 Artists do not run away from
non-being, but by encountering and wrestling with it, force it to
produce being.103 The artist is behind the mirror and everybody is
looking at him saying, "Oh, it's me."104
All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of
no-mind, from inner stillness.105 It's this in-between... this frontier
country between the tangible world and the intangible one -- which is
really the realm of the artist.106 An Artist is an actual State of Being,
one that moves both inside and outside the realms of a studio or
creative work.107 It's the artist's responsibility to balance mystical
communication and the labor of creation.108
The tools of an artist can be many things.109 If a person is an artist he
can use the most primitive of instruments a broken knife is enough.110
The simplest means are those which best enable an artist to express
himself.111 The most important tool the artist fashions through constant
practice is the faith in his ability to produce miracles when they are
needed.112 It's extraordinary stuff - what an artist has to do.113
The ideal artist is he who knows everything, feels everything,
experiences everything, and retains his experience in a spirit of
wonder and feeds upon it with creative lust.114 Artists are fiery, they
do not weep!115 If artists and poets are unhappy, it is after all because
happiness does not interest them.116 If you're an artist, the problem is
to make a picture work whether you are happy or not.117
The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing
without work.118 There are no holidays for art; and that's just fine with
the artist.119 Most artists work all the time, they do actually,
especially good artists, they work all the time, what else is there to
do?120
The artist must not love his own work too long.121 An artist has got to
be constantly in a state of becoming.122 The refusal to rest content, the
willingness to risk excess on behalf of one's obsessions, is what
distinguishes artists from entertainers, and what makes some artists
adventurers on behalf of us all.123 That's the artist's role - to strike
out always for something new, to break away, to defy, to... grapple
with the unfamiliar.124 An artist needs the best studio instruction, the
most rigorous demands, and the toughest criticism in order to tune up
his sensibilities.125
Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain
it in anything.126 With an artist, there's no such thing as perfect.127 All
artists will humiliate themselves sometimes.128 There is in every
artist's studio a scrap heap of discarded works in which the artist's
discipline prevailed against his imagination.129 To be an artist is to
fail, as no other dare fail.130 To be an artist you have to give up
everything, including the desire to be a good artist.131
Being an artist and having to be responsible for the art that you make
is really quite challenging, and as you get older it becomes more and
more difficult.132 As an artist grows older, he has to fight
disillusionment and learn to establish the same relation to nature as
an adult as he had when a child.133 Being an artist is a very long
game.134 There's no retirement for an artist, it's your way of living so
there's no end to it.135
Every time an artist dies, part of the vision of mankind passes with
him.136 Dead he is not, but departed, for the artist never dies.137 Dead
artists always bring out an older, richer crowd.138 In an artist's life,
death is perhaps not the most difficult thing.139
1. Irwin Greenberg
2. William S. Burroughs
3. Henry Miller
4. Georges Rouault
5. James Whistler
6. Mike Svob
7. Aldous Huxley
8. Pablo Picasso
9. Willa Sibert Cather
10. David Hockney
11. Maurizio Cattelan >
12. John O'Nolan
13. Anton Chekhov
14. Duke Ellington
15. William Eastlake
16. Francis Bacon
17. Karl Kraus
18. Carl Andre >
19. Hans-Ulrich Obrist >
20. Barnett Newman
21. Marcel Duchamp
22. Charles Baudelaire
23. Svetlana Racanovi ×
24. Luis Buñuel
25. Liam Gillick >
26. Harry Eugene Crews
27. Francis Newton Souza
28. Ai Wei Wei >
29. Susan Sontag
30. John F. Kennedy
31. Huang Yong Ping ×
>
32. Miguel Ángel Ruiz
33. Henry Miller
34. Oscar Wilde
35. George Bernard Shaw
36. Maxim Gorki
37. John Cage >
38. David Walsh >
39. Federico Fellini >
40. Andrei Tarkovsky
41. Carl Jung
42. Ben Shahn
43. Ezra Pound
44. Loren Eiseley
45. Paul McCarthy ×
46. Robert Smithson >
47. Jim Rowe
48. Jacob Epstein
49. John O'Hara
50. M. Owen Lee >
51. Ralph Waldo Emerson
52. Edward Ruscha >
53. Linus Torvalds
54. Auguste Rodin
55. Jean Cocteau
56. Andy Warhol
57. Ai Wei Wei >
58. Lawrence Weiner >
59. Robert Hughes >
60. Bob Ragland
61. Valerie Atkisson >
62. Damien Hirst >
63. Peter Plagens >
64. Kate Chopin
65. Charles Saatchi
66. John Baldessari >
67. Todd Plough
68. Martin Parr
69. Clement Greenberg >
70. Damien Hirst
71. Martin Scorsese
72. Jack Shadbolt
73. Henry Miller >
74. Alex Cook >
75. Jonathan Meese >
76. Saint Clair Cemin >
77. Oscar Wilde
78. Andre Malraux
79. Thomas Kinkade
80. Allan Bloom >
81. Sheila Packa >
82. Margret Elson >
83. William Faulkner >
84. R. G. Collingwood
85. Sol LeWitt >
86. H. L. Mencken >
87. Bruce Nauman
88. Susan Sontag >
89. Gustave Flaubert >
90. James Joyce >
91. Oscar Wilde
92. Asger Jorn >
93. Friedrich Von Schlegel
94. Cyril Connolly
95. Christian Boltanski >
96. T.S. Eliot
97. Oscar Wilde >
98. William Gaddis
99. Harold Rosenberg >
100. Guillaume Apollinaire
101. Carl Jung
102. Charles Baudelaire
103. Rollo May
104. Christian Boltanski >
105. Eckhart Tolle >
106. Federico Fellini
107. Patrice Donnelly
108. Patti Smith
109. Markk >
110. Joseph Beuys >
111. Henri Matisse >
112. Mark Rothko >
113. Gilbert & George >
114. George Bellows
115. Ludwig van Beethoven
116. George Santayana
117. Willem de Kooning
118. Émile Zola
119. Elfriede Jelinek >
120. David Hockney
121. Serguei Ouissik >
122. Bob Dylan
123. John Updike >
124. Brian Aldiss
125. Wayne Thiebaud
126. Eugene Delacroix
127. Alexander Calder
128. JR Dunster >
129. Robert Brault
130. Samuel Beckett
131. Jasper Johns >
132. Tracey Emin >
133. Charles E. Burchfield
134. Anish Kapoor >
135. Henry Moore
136. Franklin D. Roosevelt
137. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
138. Elizabeth Shaw
139. Vincent van Gogh
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