Top 100 Work Art Quotes
#1. It's true that things are beautiful when they work. Art is function.
Giannina Braschi
#3. To think about love and passion and political correctness all together, it doesn't work. Art has to go way past the political to be effective.
Louise Erdrich
#4. Love isn't just a feeling. It's an art. And like any art, it takes not only inspiration but also a lot of work.
Paulo Coelho
#5. We create our own reality. The blessing (or problem) with this is that when one creates one's own reality, one must live it! Are you living a blessing or is it a curse?
Gary R. Ryan
#6. In the world of reality the more beautiful a work of art, the longer, we may be sure, was the time required to make it, and the greater the number of different minds which assisted in its development.
Lafcadio Hearn
#7. What kind of judgment does one apply, then, to a work of art? I believe that there are four basic standards: (1) technical excellence, (2) validity, (3) intellectual content, the world view which comes through and (4) the integration of content and vehicle.
Francis A. Schaeffer
#8. My anxiety level of my own work and what I'm doing and focusing on my art and all of that stuff? That's fundamental.
Sufjan Stevens
#9. It has taken me years of struggle, hard work, and research to learn to make one simple gesture, and I know enough about the art of writing to realize that it would take as many years of concentrated effort to write one simple, beautiful sentence.
Isadora Duncan
#10. Just as you would when making a new work of art, don't ask for help or seek the judgment of others. You don't want to be subjected to another person's limitations or expectations.
Jackie Battenfield
#11. O sleepers! what a thing is slumber! Sleep resembles death. Ah, why then dost thou not work in such wise as that after death thou mayst retain a resemblance to perfect life, when, during life, thou art in sleep so like to the hapless dead?
Leonardo Da Vinci
#12. The man of genius is he and he alone who finds such joy in his art that he will work at it come hell or high water.
Stendhal
#13. I like keeping my work so open that it can be interpreted on different levels. Art can't be compared with journalism; it can't discuss concrete issues.
Mona Hatoum
#14. What I strive most to achieve in art is to make you forget the material. The sculptor must ... communicate whatever struck his sensibility, so that a person beholding his work may experience in its entirety the emotion felt by the artist while he observed nature.
Medardo Rosso
#15. A mystery confounds the problem of industry in art. In the last analysis, to work is simply not enough. But we have to act as if it were, leaving reward aside.
Anne Truitt
#16. A work of art is finished, from the point of view of the artist, when feeling and perception have resulted in a spiritual synthesis.
Hans Hofmann
#17. I think there is no work of art which represents the spirit of a nation more surely than "Die Meister Singer" of Richard Wagner. Here is no plaything with local colour, but the raising to its highest power all that is best in the national consciousness of his country.
Ralph Vaughan Williams
#18. The big pay-off was to work as an artist and gain some shred of respect from your friends, who were also artists. But there was never any notion that you could make a living out of art. On the rare occasions you had a gallery show, and sold a little work, well, that was just gravy.
Edward Ruscha
#19. Opposites though they are, both solitude and solidarity are essential if the artist is to produce works that are not only significant to his or her age, but that will also speak to future generations.
Rollo May
#20. Isherwood did not so much find himself in Berlin as reinvent himself; Isherwood became a fiction, a work of art.
Ian Buruma
#21. If by day art is in the service of business, the evenings are devoted to the businessman's enjoyment of it. That is asking a lot of art, but art and the businessman make it work.
Karl Kraus
#22. The fact that the work is affirmed by the Museum of Contemporary Art I think sends continued signals that this is worth paying attention to, looking at, and understanding.
Theaster Gates
#23. To know how to produce a work of art is to know how to discard the extraneous.
Laura Esquivel
#24. In my opinion in art nothing can go too far as long as you don't physically hurt people or animals. Art is there to push boundaries. I love it when my work freaks people out but it's all fake!
Tom Six
#25. Always make your work be personal. And, you never have to lie ... There is something we know that's connected with beauty and truth. There is something ancient. We know that art is about beauty, and therefore it has to be about truth.
Francis Ford Coppola
#26. In every form of art, you really want the experience of the images to transcend the medium, for the medium to disappear into the greater experience of viewing the work. So that you forget you are looking at a painting, or a photograph.
Bill Henson
#27. The work of art of the future will be the construction of a passionate life.
Raoul Vaneigem
#28. I realize that every picture isn't a work of art.
Conrad Hall
#29. The city is a fact in nature, like a cave, a run of mackerel or an ant-heap. But it is also a conscious work of art, and it holds within its communal framework many simpler and more personal forms of art. Mind takes form in the city; and in turn, urban forms condition mind.
Lewis Mumford
#30. I don't know of any good work of art that doesn't have a mystery.
Henry Moore
#31. Movie acting may not have a certain kind of glory as true art, but it is damn hard work.
William Holden
#32. The highest and best work of imagination is the marvelous transformation that it works in character. Imagine that you are one with the principal of good, and you will become truly good.
Charles Fillmore
#33. Art is the space between the viewer and the rectangle that hangs on the wall. Unless something of the person that created the work is there, there's nothing for the viewer to take away.
T. Allen Lawson
#34. More people now work in the arts than the steel, coal and car industries combined.
Melvyn Bragg
#35. When contemplating a work of art it is possible to perceive if it has been created according to the eye or to the spirit, in other words, if it projects three-dimensional reality or spiritual n-dimensionality.
Theo Van Doesburg
#36. Every work of art has one indispensable mark ... the center of it is simple, however much the fulfillment may be complicated.
Gilbert K. Chesterton
#38. The moment you think you understand a great work of art, it's dead for you.
Oscar Wilde
#40. Then I sit down, work at it, because now I have a convincing feeling about what that place wants to be, you see? And it's not just me. Me and my talent comes in taking that consensus and then making something wonderful out of it - a work of art.
Lawrence Halprin
#41. I think that is what film and art and music do; they can work as a map of sorts for your feelings.
Bruce Springsteen
#42. I'd like to work on putting art programs back in schools.
Chaka Khan
#43. Winckelmann wished to live with a work of art as a friend. The saying is true of pen and pencil. Fresh lustre shoots from Lycidas in a twentieth perusal. The portraits of Clarendon are mellowed by every year of reflection.
Robert Aris Willmott
#44. It is difficult to make political art work.
Thom Yorke
#45. But what does interest me is the notion that if you do a lot of work it means there's a potential for other people to understand that a lot of things are possible with a sustained effort and that the broadening of experiences is possible and I think that's all art can be.
Richard Serra
#46. Often I'll go outside and just place my hands on the soil, even if there's no work to do on it. When I am filled with worries, I do that and I can feel the energy of the mountains and of the trees.
Andy Couturier
#47. As great a picture can be made as one's mental capacity-no greater. Art cannot be taught; it must be self-inspiration, though the imagination may be fired and the ambition and work directed by the advice and example of others.
Edward Weston
#49. Acting is primarily is where I want to go. But seeing how the visual effects guys work, and the special effects guys and the art department guys, how they work and seeing their visions is really interesting. I don't think those guys get the recognition they deserve.
James Phelps
#50. I believe that God is (and must be) a transcendent presence in any worthy work of art.
Joy Williams
#51. If a work of art is to be truly immortal, it must pass quite beyond the limits of the human world, without any sign of common sense and logic. In this way the work will draw nearer to dream and to the mind of a child.
Giorgio De Chirico
#52. I wonder a lot about making things meaningful. You want to do meaningful work and make art, but you're making records, which is good, but you don't want to weight them - it's a very curious thing.
Doseone
#53. All work and no plagiarism makes a dull speech.
Jacob Braude
#54. Pretend you are dancing or singing a picture. A worker or painter should enjoy his work, else the observer will not enjoy it.
Robert Henri
#55. Divinity is accident of nature, magic is the work of an art.
Amit Kalantri
#56. We all agree now - by 'we' I mean intelligent people under sixty - that a work of art is like a rose. A rose is not beautiful because it is like something else. Neither is a work of art. Roses and works of art are beautiful in themselves.
Clive Bell
#57. A person's work allows their character to form and provides a creative outlet for their inner world of imaginative thoughts and creative impulses. A person whom fails to find suitable work that allows their soul room to grow will quickly begin eroding into a withered and desiccated being.
Kilroy J. Oldster
#58. The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art.
Leonardo Da Vinci
#59. If you're trying to work the art game, if you're like Andy Warhol or something, then you're in with cake-eaters of society. You want to get in with them and please them and get their money.
Robert Crumb
#60. A lot of young girls don't realise how diverse the career opportunities are in games development. Many think that you need elite math skills and a vast knowledge of all things tech to work in games, and haven't thought about avenues like design, producing, art, writing or composing.
Rhianna Pratchett
#61. I did work at Christie's for a couple of weeks, getting ready for 'The Devil Wears Prada,' getting people coffee and doing whatever they needed around the office. It was amazing. I got to see some wonderful art, and everybody was really nice. It was great.
Anne Hathaway
#62. The work of art is already within the block of marble. I just chop off whatever isn't needed.
Auguste Rodin
#63. Every work of art changes its predecessors.
Mason Cooley
#64. A dog can be a living work of art, a constant reminder of the exquisite design and breathtaking detail of nature, beauty on four paws.
Dean Koontz
#65. If every museum in the New World were emptied, if every famous building in the Old World were destroyed and only Venice saved, there would be enough there to fill a full lifetime with delight. Venice, with all its complexity and variety, is in itself the greatest surviving work of art in the world.
Evelyn Waugh
#66. The measure of a work of art is how much art it has in it, not how much 'relevance'. Relevant to whom? Relevant to what? Nothing is more ephemeral than a hot topic.
Edward St. Aubyn
#67. We talk about the vulnerability involved in sharing our work publicly. I don't think we talk enough about the real vulnerability involved in making art; if we truly engage the process we are changed by it.
John Paul Caponigro
#68. A picture is a work of art, not because it is 'modern,' nor because it is 'ancient,' but because it is a sincere expression of human feeling.
John F. Carlson
#69. In many times, after creating a piece of work I want to stand up and applaud.
Shawn Lukas
#70. As far as I can tell, there are two kinds of poets: those who want to tell stories and sing songs, and those who want to work out the chemical equation for language and pass on their experiments as poetry.
Simon Armitage
#71. I didn't want to make 'high' art, I had no interest in using paint, I wanted to find something that anyone could relate to without knowing about contemporary art. I wasn't thinking in terms of precious prints or archival quality; I didn't want the work to seem like a commodity.
Cindy Sherman
#72. I enjoy theater just for the sheer excitement of it and the immediate response that you get, and how every night the audience is a little bit different; but then, it's expensive to work in N.Y., and stage work is limited, so you're just doing it for the art.
Dorian Missick
#73. When Lionel Giles began his translation of Sun Tzu's ART OF WAR, the work was virtually unknown in Europe. Its introduction to Europe began in 1782 when a French Jesuit Father living in China, Joseph Amiot, acquired a copy of it, and translated
Sun Tzu
#74. Looking back upon my work today, I think the best I have done grew out of things deeply felt, the worst from a pride in mere talent.
Diego Rivera
#75. A work of art that contains theories is like an object on which the price tag has been left.
Alexander Pope
#77. My work comes from the experience of crowds, injustice, and aggression ... I feel an affinity for art when it was made a form of existence, like when shamans worked in the territory between men and unknown powers ... I try to bewitch the crowd.
Magdalena Abakanowicz
#78. The work of art is the exaggeration of an idea.
Andre Gide
#79. Just as no significant work of art can be created without the element of irrationality that is in fact the artist's talent." p.179
"He wondered if there was a greater distance than the one between two people in the same bed pretending to sleep." p.213
Henning Mankell
#80. I think people should be given a test much like driver's tests as to whether they're capable of being parents! It's an art form. I talk a lot. And I think a lot. And I draw a lot. But never in a million years would I have been a parent. That's just work that's too hard.
Maurice Sendak
#81. A simple equation for the production of successful art work is lots of reference material plus lots of art supplies equals lots of painting happiness.
Robert Genn
#82. I've never had to work out of the arts. I've always either been a writer or an editor, or something where I've made my living from doing what I love. You can't get any better than that.
Len Wein
#83. A very fine artist can take something quite ordinary and, through sheer artistry and willpower, turn it into a work of art.
Truman Capote
#84. The will to work must dominate, for art is long and time is brief.
Charles Baudelaire
#85. A photograph can, by the addition of an unimportant spot of color, become a photomontage, a work of art of a special kind.
John Heartfield
#86. One clear difference between art and commercial work is that commercial work is exploitive: the work may be high quality but the intention is to sell product or tickets. Art exists with or without ticket sales.
Twyla Tharp
#87. Bit by bit, putting it together ...
Piece by piece, only way to make a work of art.
Every moment makes a contribution,
Every little detail plays a part.
Having just the vision's no solution,
Everything depends on execution,
Putting it together, that's what counts.
Stephen Sondheim
#88. It takes time to build a corporate work of art. It takes time to build a life. And it takes time to develop and grow. So give yourself, your enterprise, and your family the time they deserve and the time they require.
Jim Rohn
#89. I don't see many artists who are not trying to bring their work to the public - -to the contrary I see artists nearly desperate to get attention for their art and, failing that, often for themselves.
Sally Mann
#90. The most vital things in the look of a landscape endure only for a moment. Work should be done from memory; memory of that vital moment.
Robert Henri
#91. Confidence and courage are special skills to the art ... Within the four walls of his study, the artist should be modest, work diligently and conscientiously. While for the public, he'll show himself audacious, yes even into cheerful boldness. And so a new public's darling has arisen.
Robert Schumann
#92. If we examine a work of ordinary art, by means of a powerful microscope, all traces of resemblance to nature will disappear - but the closest scrutiny of the photogenic drawing discloses only a more absolute truth, a more perfect identity of aspect with the thing represented.
Edgar Allan Poe
#93. What's important about the artists we learn about in art history and see in all the art books is that they have somehow pushed the boundaries of what people think art is or should be, and that's how they've made their work relevant. That's what I'm trying to figure out for myself.
Kadir Nelson
#94. The attempt to divide art and politics is a bourgeois which says good poetry, art, cannot be political, but since everything is ... political, even an artist or work that claims not to have any politics is making a political statement by that act.
Amiri Baraka
#95. Genius is personal, decided by fate, but it expresses itself by means of system. There is no work of art without system.
Le Corbusier
#96. 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
#97. They were all employed full time as actors in a play they understood, that any human being anywhere could understand and applaud." "So life became a work of art," I marveled.
Kurt Vonnegut
#98. She had stayed home and worked hard and a posthumous recognition had eventually followed. Not that Buck hadn't worked hard, sure he did, but in the end the body won't hold up as a work of art.
Duff Brenna
#99. Ethan, this is my favorite moment, before all of my other favorite moments are created with a new client. You are my work of art, mine to possess, sculpt, mend, bend, and make beg for mercy. You will adore worshiping, pleasing and serving me." ~ Mistress
Ruby Madden
#100. Secrets can actually be quite important. A work of art that reveals its meaning or its power too quickly is uninteresting. It might not even be a good work of art.
Thomas Koerfer