Maggie Nelson Quotes

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.

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

We like to think of film and music as art, but actually art is something that is not restricted.

I don't mean this, but I'm going to say it anyway. I don't really think of pop art and serious art as being that far apart.

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.

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

Art indeed is a term referring to the social source and to the social utility of creative acts.

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 is very subjective and having to put numbers on it seems counterintuitive.

A lot of people are intimated by art, but it's something to be revered beyond criticism.

Unless you are a born connoisseur of art, you will not be able to judge by yourself why certain art is superior to other art.

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.

Art is good, bad, boring, ugly, useful to us or not.

Art is Art. Everything else is everything else.

I try to consider each body of work on its own terms, discretely, so terms like 'sculpture' or 'photography', in their broad sense, don't really enter into my thinking.

As long as artists arbitrarily assume the right to decide what is or is not art, it is logical that the public will just as arbitrarily feel that they have the right to reject it.

Art should be serious, not a joke. I don't like to laugh about art.

I don't think there's any formula for what makes great 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.

For me, art is such a wide concept - anything can be art.

There's a point where art is not subjective, and my example for that is Picasso. If you don't like Picasso, that's your problem.

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

There's been too much attention on marketing. Can't we just talk about the paintings?

Art matters.