Eddie Vedder Quotes

I realize that protest paintings are not exactly in vogue, but I've done many.

Art is not something to decorate a wall. Art is a political weapon.

My drawings and paintings were done as an act of protest; I was trying by means of my work to convince the world that it is ugly, sick and hypocritical.

Art and activism can be symbiotic. They don't have to be, of course; they can also be contradictory.

In such ugly times, the only true protest is beauty.

It is difficult to make political art work.

By and large, the artistic establishment disapproved of Margaret Thatcher.

In the world today all culture, all literature and art belong to definite classes and are geared to definite political lines. There is in fact no such thing as art for art's sake, art that stands above classes or art that is detached from or independent of politics.

In this new world where art is willfully misinterpreted to score points and to distract, simply doing the work of an artist has become a political act.

Street art, of course, is political, because it's illegal, so the very act of doing it is an act of defiance.

Art should not be a tool of politics, but sometimes art can help make the political climate more open and help society become more free.

Activism and art do go hand in hand, but I am an artist and an 'artivist' within that.

I am an artist with very strong social and political concerns.

All good art should be political, I think, and inevitably it all becomes political really, in one way or another.

I've never been interested in, much in the politics of the art world, it doesn't interest me.

I write some art criticism, and one thing that's clear to me is that politics is fashionable in the American art world in a way it maybe isn't in American fiction. Your work of art becomes fashionable the moment it has some kind of political commentary. I think this has its dangers - the equation between fashion, politics, and art is problematic for obvious reasons. Nonetheless, the notion of politics as being de rigueur in the world of fiction is almost unthinkable. In fiction in America at the moment, the escape into whimsy is far more prevalent than the political.

Art and propaganda have this much connection, that if a propaganda makes art impossible, it is clearly damned.

Terence McKenna says, "The culture is not your friend." I am not sure we can change this culture. But I think we can rise above it and create a new world. That's why I so deeply believe in alternative spaces. That's why I believe in the power of art and activism.

Use your art to fight.

The ordinary politician has a very low estimate of human nature. In his daily life he comes into contact chiefly with persons who want to get something or to avoid something. Beyond this circle of seekers after privileges, individuals and organized minorities, he is aware of a large unorganized, indifferent mass of citizens who ask nothing in particular and rarely complain. The politician comes after a while to think that the art of politics is to satisfy the seekers after favors and to mollify the inchoate mass with noble sentiments and patriotic phrases.

Rock-and-roll was an example of change in the body of the culture. I think it's really what helped bring the anti-war movement to its peak and moved people into the streets to seize the day - the movement was the embodiment of what was happening in the music. This is what taught me that it was possible to bring art and activism together. Without that piece, that energetic embodiment piece, the rest is just intellectual construct.

Painting is not made to decorate apartments. It's an offensive and defensive weapon against the enemy. (about Guernica).

It is not the office of art to spotlight alternatives, but to resist by its form alone the course of the world, which permanently puts a pistol to men's heads.

The conflict between art and politics... cannot and must not be solved.

Each of us contributes our own piece to the whole, each in our own way, each in our own time with the gifts and talents that are ours. You ask about possible vehicles for change: question, stand, speak, act. Engage in unruly behavior. Disturb the status quo. Take direct action. Commit civil disobedience. Make art. Build community. Dance. Sing. Farm. Cook. Create something beautiful and then give it away. Find your own monkey wrench and use it with the force of love. Sharpen your pencil. Vote.