Russell Lynes Quotes

The Art Snob will stand back from a picture at some distance, his head cocked slightly to one side

A good critic is the man who describes his adventures among masterpieces.

I don't pretend to know anything about art. I make pictures for entertainment, and then the professors tell me what they mean.

I've always been very opinionated, for lack of a better term, about art. Not to sound too arrogant, but I guess I'm a connoisseur of telling people what I think is good and bad.

It would be most wholesome if for at least twenty years art historians were forbidden to refer to any derivations. If they were not allowed to account for a work of art mainly by tracing where it comes from, they would have to deal with it in and by itself--which is what they are most needed for.

If art is to have a special train, the critic must keep some seats reserved on it.

Critics of art are like eunuchs in harem. They see how it's done when the men come to see the women, but they can't do it themselves.

Being critical of art is a way of showing art respect.

When I see a new artist I give myself a lot of time to reflect and decide whether it's art or not.

I'm an art collector, have been for years, and I paint. Needless to say, the artwork in my houses, apartment is extensive.

Everybody's an art critic.

This man, who for twenty-five years has been reading and writing about art, and in all that time has never understood anything about art, has for twenty-five years been hashing over other people's ideas about realism, naturalism and all that nonsense; for twenty-five years he has been reading and writing about what intelligent people already know and about what stupid people don't want to know--which means that for twenty-five years he's been taking nothing and making nothing out of it. And with it all, what conceit! What pretension!

I find relatively little relationship between the work of art and the immediate critical response it gets.

Bunglers and pedants judge art according to genre; they approve of this and dismiss that genre, but instead of genres, the open-minded connoisseur appreciates only individual works.

Art critic! Is that a profession? When I think we are stupid enough, we painters, to solicit those people's compliments and to put ourselves into their hands! What shame! Should we even accept that they talk about our work?

The function of criticism is the reeducation of perception of works of art? The conception that its business is to appraise, to judge in the legal and moral sense, arrests the perception of those who are influenced by the criticism that assumes this task.

Criticism talks a good deal of nonsense, but even its nonsense is a useful force. It keeps the question of art before the world, insists upon its importance.

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

Overhearing people's conversations about art - that's always entertaining.

I love painters because I don't paint, so I get to enjoy art; I like collecting paintings.

One way to test a picture's integrity is to turn it upside down - a technique used not only by connoisseurs but also by artists trying to see their work with a fresh eye.

I especially like to collect contemporary art.

Just as the unmusical ear is not competent to judge music, so it is likewise with pictures, whether they are paintings, drawings or photos. Only a sensitive and trained eye gives us the right to judge.

The art world is the biggest joke going. It's a rest home for the overprivileged, the pretentious, and the weak. And modern art is a disgrace - never have so many people used so much stuff and taken so long to say so little.

It may be a point of great pride to have a Van Gogh on the living room wall, but the prospects of having Van Gogh himself in the living room would put a great many devoted art lovers to rout.