Ryuichi Sakamoto Quotes

Some art needs to be hung on the wall and stared at inquisitively, while other pieces require a more active approach.

I don't listen to what art critics say. I don't know anybody who needs a critic to find out what art is.

The strangeness will wear off and I think we will discover the deeper meanings in modern art.

It is not hard to understand modern art. If it hangs on a wall it's a painting, and if you can walk around it it's a sculpture.

Art really is something very difficult. It is difficult to make, and it is sometimes difficult for the viewer to understand. It is difficult to work out what is art and what is not art.

I think we're much smarter than we were. Everybody knows that abstract art can be art, and most people know that they may not like it, even if they understand there's another purpose to it.

We believed that there's no such thing as good art or bad art. Art is art. If it's bad, it's something else. It was a much, much harder line in the '50s and '60s than it is now, because the idea of art education didn't exist - they didn't have a fine arts program when I was a kid.

Art to me is not precious enough that I feel territorial about what the word gets applied to. Conversations about what counts as art and what doesn't doesn't captivate my attention very much.

You never know about the art world because it's a matter of opinion. If you look at old art like Rembrandt and Vermeer, it's not completely a matter of opinion. The pictures confront you, and you see exactly what it is. In modern art, a lot of it is suggestive, and it becomes a matter of opinion.

Buying art is not understanding art.

Art is a habit-forming drug. Art has absolutely no existence as veracity, as truth. People always speak of it with this great, religious reverence, but why should it be so revered?

Art is Art. Everything else is everything else.

When works of art are presented like rare butterflies on the walls, they're decontextualized. We admire their beauty, and I have nothing against that, per se. But there is more to art than that.

People don't like contemporary art, but all art starts life as contemporary - I can't really see a difference.

Art is always good. It just depends if you like or not.

Art! Who comprehends her? With whom can one consult concerning this great goddess?

Art is an invention of aesthetics, which in turn is an invention of philosophers... What we call art is a game.

A beautiful print is a thing in itself, not just a halfway house on the way to the page.

The philistine provides the best definition of art. Anything that makes him rage is first class.

Great art - or good art - is when you look at it, experience it and it stays in your mind. I don't think conceptual art and traditional art are all that different.

Before the people at large, and for that matter, the artists themselves, understand what photography really means, as I understand that term, it is essential for them to be taught the real meaning of art.

We have to remind people how important arts are. People just don't see it.

Part of the joy of looking at art is getting in sync in some ways with the decision-making process that the artist used and the record that's embedded in the work.

The moment you think you understand a great work of art, it's dead for you.

I gave up on the idea of making art a long time ago, because I wanted to know how to make paintings; but once I came to know that, reconsidering the question of what art is returned as a critical issue.