e. e. cummings Quotes

Only the work of art itself can raise the standard of taste.

The frame is the reward of the artist.

All art is communication of the artists' ideas, sounds, thoughts; without that no one will support the artist.

Sometimes good art jumps out at me; most of the time I see bad art, or see nothing at all and just drift, feeling weird, pretending to be fine.

There have been many definitions of beauty in art. What is it? Beauty is what the untrained eyes consider abominable.

There's no connection between consumption of art and moral stamina at all.

The learned understand the reason of art; the unlearned feel the pleasure.

I'll buy a bottle for anyone who can tell me what makes a picture beautiful!

I who have been involved with all styles of painting can assure you that the only things that fluctuate are the waves of fashion which carry the snobs and speculators; the number of true connoisseurs remains more or less the same.

In Rome it seems as if there were so many things which are more wanted in the world than pictures.

Art, I suppose, is only for beginners, who have made up in their minds to be content with symbols rather than with what they signify, with the elegantly composed recipe in lieu of actual dinner.

Don't be carried off your feet by anything because it is modern - the latest thing. Go to the Louvre often and spend a good deal of time before the Rembrandts, the Delacroixs.

In general, and most especially with artists, I pay as much attention to the man who does the work, as to the work itself.

And if out of a million visitors there is even one to whom art means something, that is enough to justify museums.

I liked working in advertising, but don't believe my taste in art, such as it is, was entirely formed by TV commercials. And I don't feel especially conflicted enjoying a Mantegna one day, a Carl Andre the next day and a brash student work the next.

There is something wrong with a work of art if it can be understood by a policeman.

It's in our nature. If you are a plumber, there is an objective way to establish whether you put together a great piping system or not. Art is a bit more slippery than that. So, when you fill a gallery with dirt and someone comes along waving wads of bills, it's difficult not to take them because they become a tangible acknowledgement that what you've been doing actually makes sense.

A work of art must carry in itself its complete significance and impose it upon the beholder even before he can identify the subject-matter.

Those who are concerned with the arts are often asked questions, not always sympathetic ones, about the use or value of what they are doing. It is probably impossible to answer such questions directly, or at any rate to answer the people who ask them.

That art is best which suggests most.

Art has nothing to do with taste. Art is not there to be tasted

The paintings of Francis Bacon to my eye are very beautiful. The paintings of Bosch or Goya are to my eye very beautiful. I've also stood in front of those same paintings with people who've said, 'let's get on to the Botticellis as soon as possible.' I have lingered, of course.

When people say, 'I don't get art' ... that means art is working.

I am afraid that as evangelicals, we think that a work of art only has value if we reduce it to a tract.

A picture's beauty does not depend on the things portrayed in it.