Walter Benjamin Quotes

For the general public, my work is sometimes easier than a painting because there is someone addressing you; it can actually be a relief. What's interesting is the idea of a tourist randomly coming in and the experience they'll have.

I love visual art. I painted for many years when I was younger. I have studied modern/contemporary Indian art a bit and am very impressed with the talent in India.

I have a Damien Hirst spot painting which I love. It has pride of place over my dining-room table.

People look at film in a gallery, and if they walk out after two minutes they know they haven't seen the whole work. But then people look at a painting for two minutes and think they've seen it. Certain paintings are made to be consumed fast. But some require a slowed-down time. You have to go back to them.

Rock & roll is not obscure, it's really easy to understand. So is my painting.

If the Frieze Art Fair catches on, I imagine at least two great things happening. First, we will once again have a huge art fair in town that isn't too annoying to go to. More importantly, Frieze may finally show New Yorkers that we can cross our own waters for visual culture. That would change everything.

The public history of modern art is the story of conventional people not knowing what they are dealing with.

Frankly, these days, without a theory to go with it, I can't see a painting.

I love surrealism.

For me, it's important to ask what are you making, and what's the public's relationship to that. And I say public relationship because I don't really care so much about any sort of reception.

I gravitate toward contemporary art. I love great paintings, sculpture, photography, some video art.

Growing up I was very into art. In high school I was into the surrealists and impressionists, and I loved Klimt. In '91 or '92 I saw one of those Felix Gonzalez-Torres Untitled billboards. I was just really arrested by it. It was kind of my first foray into contemporary art. It was a turning point for me as to what art could be and what it meant and the impact it could have.

[Pablo] Picasso really changed my life. It's strange to say so, but I started to see some Picasso paintings very early. I was very young, and he was not so much known.

Under his (Marc Chagall, ed.) sole impulse metaphor made its triumphal entry into modern painting.

I have 12 paintings of Kaufman art. He is an amazing artist.

To me, the art of cinema is the same as the art of painting. The artist takes a 2D medium and gives you the illusion of depth. If you look at any of the great paintings, you have the illusion of depth. Which is part of the art. The same with the great movies.

Ah! My dear friend painting is to us what the music of Berlioz and Wagner was before us - a consolatory art for sore hearts! And yet there are only a few like you and me who feel it!!!

I'm obviously not going to give you everything about my whole life, but as far as my personality, you see me all the time from watching the games.

I love painting. As far as photography is concerned, I understand nothing.

A work of art is an echo chamber which repeats what people say about it.

What's great about it is that painting doesn't move. And so in the 21st century, when we're used to clicking and browsing and having constant choice, painting simply sits there silently and begs you to notice the smallest of detail.

I like a painting which makes me want to stroll in it.

I think Roy Jones is a great fighter, a great puncher. But you know, he doesn't use the jab. But he's got everything else going for him. The problem that hurts Roy Jones in the boxing business, in the celebrity business, is his attitude. Attitude hurts, because you say a lot of things that you probably don't really mean and you say them because you don't want to be put down. But you've got a lot of people who don't like what you say, and that hurts. And that's what Roy Jones has been hurt by. That's what I have been hurt by.

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.

The painters have no copyright on modern art!... I believe in, and make no apologies for, photography: it is the most important graphic medium of our day. It does not have to be, indeed cannot be - compared to painting - it has different means and aims.