Edvard Munch Quotes

Not all art is great; most of it's rubbish.

There must be some one quality without which a work of art cannot exist; possessing which, in the least degree, no work is altogether worthless.

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

A proof of really great art is that it is generally true - it seldom falls into the misapprehensions to which minor art is liable.

A good painting should be the equivalent of a good deed.

If it's good art, it's good.

Great art is the contempt of a great man for small art.

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

No matter how hard I tried to popularize, I never cheapened a great work of art.

If your choice enters into it, then taste is involved - bad taste, good taste, uninteresting taste. Taste is the enemy of art, A-R-T.

I sometimes make pictures which are not up to my standard, but then it can only be said of a mediocrity that all his work is up to his standard.

A painting has to be beautiful. Even in its grotesqueness.

As an artist, I will always give art more importance and preference than pure entertainment.

I personally don't distinguish between artistic and commercial films.

Art is amoral; so is life. For me there are no obscene pictures or books; there are only poorly conceived and poorly executed ones.

All bad art is the result of good intentions.

I just don't think it honors God to create mediocre art.

If modern painters feel qualms about applying the term "masterpiece" to describe a work of capital importance, this is because it has come to convey a notion of perfection: a notion that leads to much confusion when applied to artists other than those who made perfection their ideal.

90% of every art form is garbage - dance and stand-up, painting and music. Focus on the 10% that's good, suck it up, and drive on.

What is bad painting? Picabia made some deliberately bad paintings, but they were by him, so great in a way.

I feel that all good art is powerful and simple.

There is no reason for me to show my collection in New York, because it's not about craft and technique there.

I know that the arts are important. I'm not denying that, but I can't associate myself with all the claptrap that goes on around it.

I have never collected an object or figure from Africa or Oceania because of anything curious about it or because of its utility or historic interest. Everything has been chosen entirely because of its aesthetic significance; its form, feeling, structure, and plastic values.

In the world of reality the more beautiful a work of art, the longer, we may be sure, was the time required to make it, and the greater the number of different minds which assisted in its development.