Harold Rosenberg Quotes

All art is based on non-conformity.

Art is magic, not logic. This craze for the logical spirit in irrational shape is part of the present harmful mania for uniformity.

Art is not predictable. Art is not golf, as great as that may be. There are 360 degrees of choice to make.

Art is permitted to survive only if it renounces the right to be different.

Art in relation to life is nothing more than a glove turned inside out. It seems to have the same shapes and contours, but it can never be used for the same purpose. Art teaches nothing about life, just as life teaches us nothing about art.

Art doesn't go to sleep in the bed made for it. It would sooner run away than say its own name: what it likes is to be incognito. Its best moments are when it forgets what its own name is.

I guess the role of art is to make something that is ambiguous and complex.

Art... does not take kindly to facts, is helpless to grapple with theories, and is killed outright by a sermon.

I don't think you need to be so result-oriented when you're trying to define the success of an art work. I think we can allow some unpredictability.

Music is a funny thing when you really come to think about it.

Isn't art about breaking rules, about challenging existing systems, isn't it about discovering meaning in things or situations before others see anything in them??

I remember when I was in art classes, I hated following the assignments. And I would get in trouble for doing something totally different or taking it in a weird direction.

It does not matter how badly you paint so long as you don't paint badly like other people.

I want to be an artist you cannot categorize at all. You can't put a box around me. You can't put anything around me.

I love to create, and to me, the ultimate freedom of expression is a blank canvas or a block of clay to capture whatever emotions your imagination gives it.

Artwork is not like a commercial business; there is no such thing as a schedule for art. You can't hurry art.

Art is maybe a subversive activity. There is a certain rebellion when you are an artist at heart, even if only in the art of living.

The artist's world is limitless. It can be found anywhere, far from where he lives or a few feet away. It is always on his doorstep.

It's really easy to project this whole ideology of what being an artiste is, and I'm just not down with intellectualizing it. I just think, if you feel like doing something, then do it.

People write music, and the music is out there for people to interpret it how they want to.

Art is more engaging that propaganda.

There is no such thing as a wrong note.

To curb the machine and limit art to handicraft is a denial of opportunity.

I never finished the 'Large Glass' because, after working on it for eight years, I probably got interested in something else; also, I was tired. It may be that, subconsciously, I never intended to finish it because the word 'finish' implies an acceptance of traditional methods and all the paraphernalia that accompany them.

We feel more and more intensely about the music we make. It's unexpected, and not always what you would think of in Beach House. It's all art in the end. We aren't making records because we have to; it's because it's what we want to express.