Robert Hughes Quotes

In Japanese art, space assumed a dominant role and its position was strengthened by Zen concepts.

Everything man is doing in architecture is to try to go against nature. Of course we have to understand nature to know how far we have to go against nature. The secret, I think, of the future is not doing too much. All architects have the tendency to do too much.

The earliest paintings I loved were always the most non-referential paintings you can imagine, by painters such as Mondrian. I was thrilled by them because they didn't refer to anything else. They stood alone, and they were just charged magic objects that did not get their strength from being connected to anything else.

My philosophy? Simplicity plus variety.

In the West, we look at art through life. Well, that's one way of living. In the Orient they look at life through art. They even drink their tea without sugar, for the same reason that they don't like a lot of frilly decorations on a painting. I can't stand butter on my bread for the same reason. I'm allergic to goo and rococo.

Simplicity and repose are the qualities that measure the true value of any work of art.

Beauty is the ultimate defense against complexity.

The architect should strive continually to simplify; the ensemble of the rooms should then be carefully considered that comfort and utility may go hand in hand with beauty.

Pictures must not be too picturesque.

Too much clutter is a disturbance to the energy of a space for me. It's big no-no for me.

Designing a game can be like a Japanese garden. It's not what you put in but how much you take away.

I think complexity is beautiful.

Sometimes I think albums are so ambitious, they don't stand as bodies of work because you try to achieve so much, and sometimes we need to do less. Say less.

Apple is a unique company in that the art and the science sit together very nicely. There's an appreciation for both sides of the brain.

The primary plan is to let the music speak for itself.

A good painting is a lot like a good joke: you need to know when to stop, too many 'punchlines and you will have gone too far.

The essence of architecture is form and space, and light is the essential element to the key to architectural design, probably more important than anything. Technology and materials are secondary.

In almost every task involving form, there are dozens, often hundreds of contradictory elements, which need to be forced to work in harmony by man's will. This harmony can be acheived only through art.

There is no excuse for doing anything which is not strikingly beautiful.

The simplification of life is one of the steps to inner peace.

Order and creativity are complementary.

White. A blank page or canvas. The challenge. Bring order to the whole Through design, composition, tension, balance, light, and harmony.

My aim is to escape from the medium with which I work; to leave no residue of technical mannerisms to stand between my expression and the observer. To seek freedom through significant form and design rather than through the diversion of so-called free and accidental brush handling.

When you play Mozart, it's so clean, it's so simple. It's the body naked.

I like a thing simple but it must be simple through complication. Everything must come into your scheme, otherwise you cannot achieve real simplicity.