Wassily Kandinsky Quotes

Most art is fragile and some should be placed and never moved away.

A museum has to renew its collection to be alive, but that does not mean we give on important old works.

A saboteur in the house of art and a comedienne in the house of art theory, Lawler has spent three decades documenting the secret life of art. Functioning as a kind of one-woman CSI unit, she has photographed pictures and objects in collectors' homes, in galleries, on the walls of auction houses, and off the walls, in museum storage.

If the picture needs varnishing later, I allow a restorer to do that, if there's any restoring necessary.

Almost all institutions own a lot more art than they can ever show, much of it revealing for its timeliness, genius, or sheer weirdness.

We are similar to a museum. My function is to present old masterpieces in modern frames.

There is tragic evidence to show that the paintings at the French prehistoric art sites are deteriorating.

I definitely am concerned with preservation. For me, what's interesting is the archival state, or how long oil paintings last.

It's easier to fix damage than it is to create it.

The photographs that are art have to be separated from the rest - then preserved.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is unsurpassed at presenting more than 50 centuries of work. I go there constantly, seeing things over and over, better than I've ever seen them before.

Works of art often last forever, or nearly so. But exhibitions themselves, especially gallery exhibitions, are like flowers; they bloom and then they die, then exist only as memories, or pressed in magazines and books.

Restorers of paintings and pottery follow a code of conduct in their work to distinguish the original material from what they are adding later.

You don't restore 'The Last Supper' by filling in the missing bits - you preserve. You accept the material that has somehow survived.

Consequently it will often happen there will be a desire of particular objects, in cases where they cannot be obtained without manifest injury to others.

Like surgeons trying to save a life, the conservators and preservers at New York City museums dedicate themselves to ensuring the longevity of works of art for public view.

The Met is not only the finest encyclopedic museum of art in the United States; it is arguably the finest anywhere.

I have 17 full-time archivists working for me who put away in books all the diversity of artwork I do, from drawing to etching to monotypes to prints to lithographs.

MoMA is one of the world's most admired cultural institutions.

Owners of valuable works of art don't give to institutions that don't provide good air conditioning and have good shows.

Nobody really needs a painting. It's something you kind of create value for in a way that you don't with a company. It's an act of collective faith what an object is worth. Maintaining that value system is part of what a dealer does, not just making a transaction but making sure that important art feels important.

I pledge allegiance to the living, and I will defend art from history. I will rescue art from the future, from its attrition into taste, and from the speculative notion that it will become more valuable with time.

If the arts are in peril, we must do our small part to to fight the good fight and protect and preserve.

On Bergessio, in 2013, I made a reckless tackle and I was so sorry. I told him I was sorry a thousand times but I couldn't give him back the piece that I broke.

Artificial light is used because you can control it better. Technically, it is more homogeneous, more delicate, and less damaging to artwork. But I think it's interesting when the visitor can see variations in the light, when it is not only technical or suitable.