David Elliott Quotes

People don't like contemporary art, but all art starts life as contemporary - I can't really see a difference.

The art market is global now, and there's becoming more of an international consensus about what constitutes good art.

When people see one of these new forms of art for the first time, often they can't make sense of it. Then, if it's around long enough, a lot of people get used to it and it becomes assimilated into culture. So there's a morphic field both for the kind of art and for the appreciation of it.

Art collectors are pretty insignificant in the scheme of things. What matters and survives is the art. I buy art that I like. I buy it to show it off in exhibitions. Then, if I feel like it, I sell it and buy more art.

Technology adds nothing to art.

Contrary to popular opinion, things don't go stale particularly fast in the art world.

The conventional notions of art have changed, and a lot of things done today are considered works of art that would have been rejected in the past.

Art is not a treasure in the past or an importation from another land, but part of the present life of all living and creating peoples.

Well, I'd say that the beginning of this thing came through with Art of This Century, Peggy Guggenheim's, where she opened this gallery and began showing some things that caused a little talk, amongst a lot of other things.

From 1940 to the present, the art world - and particularly Los Angeles - has undergone a transformation not unlike the Italian Renaissance.

By the time I discovered Chicano painters in the mid-'80s, I recognized that these guys were really world-class painters, but they weren't getting any attention, which was good in one sense in that I could get their work for cheaper!

I love the work of Matisse and Picasso, but I don't have enough millions to own one. And I don't really believe in owning art, anyway.

The entertainment business hasn't had a new idea in years.

In the past, art was admired and revered from afar. Today, there is more of an interactive relationship between the art and the person who admires it.

My contemporary art collection began with just needing to put things on the wall. I was looking around my Victorian house thinking, 'What would be the coolest is contemporary art - it will make me look young and interesting.' I'm more than 80 percent skeptical of the whole thing.

I am obsessed with the painter Jonas Wood, but I don't think I'll ever be able to afford one of his paintings. He's an L.A.-based painter; his stuff is incredible.

If I can't be fishing or hunting, I want to be in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

I've never been what they call a 'pure gallerist.' I find that somewhat pretentious, honestly - I'm an art dealer. I like to show great artists of our time, but I also like dealing. And I think they reinforce each other.

Modern art, in particular, seems especially vulnerable to fraud. Its abstractions are sometimes difficult to understand or grasp, and a modern painting is often loved less because of its intrinsic quality - its beauty, as conventionally understood - than because of the identity of the painter, its mark of social status.

I have a fondness for making paintings that go beyond just having a conversation about art for art's sake or having a conversation about art history. I actually really enjoy looking at broader popular culture.

In my opinion, the most dangerous thing an artist can do in this day and age is not embrace the present.

I go to contemporary galleries all around the world when I can. There's always something historical and something contemporary; those are my rock references.

I visit a lot of art galleries. I live in Dublin and there's a very good gallery called the Kevin Kavanagh gallery.

I love art, but I've never bought an artwork or even considered it.

I began collecting artwork as a way to help young artists to promote their work as well as to increase awareness of contemporary art among the younger generation.