Paul Rand Quotes

There's nothing Dutch about my architecture.

A formally harmonious product needs no decoration; it should be elevated through pure form.

The last hundred years have been retinal; even the cubists were. The surrealists tried to free themselves, and earlier so had the dadaists, but unfortunately, these latter were nihilists and didn't produce enough to prove their point, which, by the way, they didn't have to prove - according to their theory.

Modernism has a reputation for being a forbidding phenomenon: its visual arts disconcertingly non-representational, its literary efforts devoid of the consolations of plot and character - even its films, it's argued, fall well short of that true desideratum: entertainment.

I question: do we really understand the differences between modernist and postmodernist?

It took me twenty years to get Steven Parrino's work. From the time I first saw his art, in the mid-eighties, I almost always dismissed it as mannered, Romantic, formulaic, conceptualist-formalist heavy-metal boy-art abstraction.

I really appreciate artists of the 20th century, and I can see a lot of their influence on my work, but to suggest that my design only fits within an 'ism' kind of bothers me.

Modernism, rebelling against the ornament of the 19th century, limited the vocabulary of the designer. Modernism emphasized straight lines, eliminating the expressive S curve. This made it harder to communicate emotions through design.

Modernism in other arts brought extreme difficulty. In poetry, the characteristic difficulty imported under the name of modernism was obscurity. But obscurity could just as easily be a quality of metrical as of free verse.

Picasso's sculpture has incredible strength combined with a lack of pomposity.

I think overdesigning comes from a lack of editing. The strongest, most compelling, and most useful things in life are irreducible - love, truth, faith, honor.

In general I don't like definitions, but 'Minimalist' is a term that means elegance and openness, so I would prefer to be called a Minimalist than something else.

The Italian futurists, the German expressionists, and the British vorticists were fascinated by speed and the ways the modern world was shattering conventions. The old ways of painting, writing, sculpting, and composing no longer seemed adequate to capture the world.

Mr Fosse was obviously influenced by Brecht and Weill, as well as Bergman and Fellini, and you could see the influence of vaudeville and African American hoofing - and Fred Astaire, too.

I feel like when you just say what the truth is, you can't really comment more than that.

Don't write slogans, write truths.

The truth is ever best.

The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction.

True simplicity is elegant.

I write as straight as I can, just as I walk as straight as I can, because that is the best way to get there.

Truth is a jewel which should not be painted over; but it may be set to advantage and shown in a good light.

How sweet it would be to treat men and things, for an hour, for just what they are!

A vocabulary of truth and simplicity will be of service throughout your life.

Convert life into truth.

In both metaphysics and art, honesty is the best policy. Keep it clean.