Pope John Paul II Quotes

Painting is about the beauty of space and the power of containment.

The first impression of a work of art is its otherness from reality.

The mediator of the inexpressible is the work of art.

Art is not about thinking something up. It is the opposite - getting something down.

The principles of true art is not to portray, but to evoke.

Fine art is knowledge made visible.

I think it was Roger Fry who first coined what he took to be a final definition of a work of art, whether it was a painting, building, poem or Hepplewhite chair. He said that the best works of art are finished products that preserve 'a valuable state of mind'.

Painting gives the object itself; poetry what it implies. Painting embodies what a thing contains in itself; poetry suggests what exists out of it, in any manner connected with it.

All great art ... creates in the beholder not self-satisfacti on but wonder and awe. Its great liberation is to lift us out of ourselves.

Photography is Art and Art is Photography.

A work of art is a world in itself reflecting senses and emotions of the artist's world. Just as a flower, by virtue of its existence as a complete organism is both ornamental and self-sufficient as to color, form, and texture, so art, because of its singular existence is more than mere ornament.

... the image of feeling created by artists, in every kind of art -- plastic, musical, poetic, balletic -- serves to hold the reality itself for our labile and volatile memory, as a touchstone to test the scope of our intellectual constructions.

When people say, 'I don't get art' ... that means art is working.

We need our Arts to teach us how to breathe

The great end of all arts is to make an impression on the imagination and the feeling. The imitation of nature frequently does this. Sometimes it fails and something else succeeds.

A fine work of art - music, dance, painting, story - has the power to silence the chatter in the mind and lift us to another place.

Painting doesn't have a function, not in the way that music or film does... I mean, you can dance to music. Music can be used for a soundtrack, so it has a function in that sense, beyond itself. But painting doesn't... But I do believe that painting has a purpose.

A drawing is essentially a private work, related only to the artist's own needs; a 'finished' statue or canvas is essentially a public, presented work - related far more directly to the demands of communication.

I realize that every picture isn't a work of art.

Artwork is a representation of our devotion to life.

Painting is a nail to which I fasten my ideas.

You don't paint pictures to put them in your attic. You want people to look at them.

The mission of art is to represent nature not to imitate her.

The job of art is to chase ugliness away.

Pop Art looks out into the world. It doesn't look like a painting of something, it looks like the thing itself.