Wolfgang Tillmans Quotes

I'm interested in aesthetics, in the way things look, in finding something in an image that maybe people haven't seen.

A sign to me is a one-liner, a symbol is very complex and my house is a series of symbols.

What is art but a way of seeing?

What is it about animation, graphics, illustrations, that create meaning? And this is an important question to ask and answer because the more we understand how the brain creates meaning, the better we can communicate, and, I also think, the better we can think and collaborate together.

Oceans of emotion can be transmitted through a text message, an emoji sequence, and a winking semicolon, but humans are hardwired to respond to visuals.

In 1979, postmodernism lost its understanding of the meaning of ornament. It degenerated into kitsch applique.

To take photographs means to recognize - simultaneously and within a fraction of a second - both the fact itself and the rigorous organization of visually perceived forms that give it meaning. It is putting one's head, one's eye and one's heart on the same axis.

Art does not reproduce what we see; rather, it makes us see.

Although my art work was heavily informed by my design work on a formal and visual level, as regards meaning and content the two practices parted ways.

The eye is the notebook of the poet.

Hence it is that the shape of something is especially meaningful.

Art is essentially communication. It doesn't exist in a vacuum. That's why people make art, so other people can relate to it.

So many paintings have hidden meanings or need wall texts, but my work is not in that category.

What I wish to show when I paint is the way I see things with my eyes and in my heart.

Cubism is like standing at a certain point on a mountain and looking around. If you go higher, things will look different; if you go lower, again they will look different. It is a point of view.

Art is spiritual.

When I look at someone's face, there's something in my brain that just clicks - that breaks down their face into the elements that go into a caricature. It might be like the way a chef tastes a dish and can break down into elements what went into it.

Whether he is an artist or not, the photographer is a joyous sensualist, for the simple reason that the eye traffics in feelings, not in thoughts.

I like to look at everything and appreciate seeing the different things that have meaning to people.

Everything for me becomes allegory.

Part of the joy of looking at art is getting in sync in some ways with the decision-making process that the artist used and the record that's embedded in the work.

I kind of write about visual art the way Roger Angell writes about baseball, which is to say, you're writing about life: it's a somewhat focused, limited terrain in which you write about everything.

Why take notes? The obvious reason is to remember. Visual note-taking translates what we hear into pictures that give context, color, and meaning. By adding symbols, visual metaphors, likenesses of people, and room layouts, we add several dimensions.

There are universal shapes to which everybody is subconsciously conditioned and to which they can respond if their conscious control does not shut them off.

Art is the skin of the soul.