Andre Malraux Quotes

As a matter of history great developments in art have often been remarkably separate from religious motivation and use.

Art need no longer be an account of past sensations.

I have studied the art of the masters and the art of the moderns, avoiding any preconceived system and without prejudice. I have no more wanted to imitate the former than to copy the latter; nor have I thought of achieving the idle aim of art for art's sake.

If only America would realize that the art of Europe is finished - dead - and that America is the country of the art of the future, instead of trying to base everything she does on European traditions!

When artists make art, they shouldn't question whether it is permissible to do one thing or another.

The art world is the biggest joke going. It's a rest home for the overprivileged, the pretentious, and the weak. And modern art is a disgrace - never have so many people used so much stuff and taken so long to say so little.

The painting has a life of its own

Art is a self-replicating force.

I can't wait to get into a position to make really bad art and get away with it. At the moment if I did certain things people would look at it, consider it and then say "f off". But after a while you can get away with things.

Modern art is what happens when painters stop looking at girls and persuade themselves that they have a better idea.

I think cubism has not fully been developed. It is treated like a style, pigeonholed and that's it.

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

The basis for my own work during the years just before coming to America in 1915 was a desire to break up forms - to 'decompose' them much along the lines the cubists had done. But I wanted to go further - much further - in fact, in quite another direction altogether.

From 1940 to the present, the art world - and particularly Los Angeles - has undergone a transformation not unlike the Italian Renaissance.

The great art of the past became great because it started to go out of the perimeters that defined art and defined new territories.

Art should be able to be innovative without compromising itself. That's why I believe artists should have bigger preoccupations than checking the price tags on their work or becoming curators' darlings.

I love this freedom that has been given to me as an artist to express myself.

In a lot of ways, I wouldn't be an artist in another time. I need to exist in a time where high and low art mix easily.

The moment we live in is a great time to make art. We have different technologies to play with, and we're left with the opportunity to focus on our work.

People make art on the sides of buildings, and they'll make art on the sides of trains. They'll make art wherever they decide to make art. The technology that people are working with now will be replaced in 10 years, so that's not where your future is, if you're a musician.

I don't think the government should touch art. Governments are risk averse. They encourage risk-averse personalities to be artists.

If a work of art is to explore new environments, it is not to be regarded as a blueprint but rather as a form of action-painting.

We started to confuse entertainment with art, because art has a component of entertainment. It has to have that or it becomes too boring. It becomes too lost in its own devices. But I just think that we started to lose, and even before that, it's not necessary.

Modern art is a disaster area. Never in the field of human history has so much been used by so many to say so little.

The depths modern art has been exploring are mysterious depths, full of strange fish.