Kerry James Marshall Quotes

No country is fully civilized which cannot appreciate its artists. They make a contribution not just to the entertainment side of life, but to the educational, economic and spiritual sides.

I believe that the arts of a culture are terribly important and yet almost indefensible.

The beauty one can find in art is one of the pitifully few real and lasting products of human endeavour. The beauty endures. A work of art lives...through the generations and centuries.

Every work of art is the child of its age and, in many cases, the mother of our emotions. It follows that each period of culture produces an art of its own which can never be repeated.

Queen Victoria did not regard art, letters, or music as in any way springing from national character: they were something quite apart, elegant decorations resembling a scarf or a bracelet, and in no way expressive of the soul of the country.

At the time that they were shown, the Brillo Boxes were underappreciated. It's only now, with the patina of history, that we can really see these masterpieces in a clear light.

Critic's delight: scolding the Mighty Dead.

The distinction between a gallery and a museum is enormous. The gallery is about looking at a thing of beauty; the purpose of the activity is an aesthetic response. The museum is actually about the object that lets you get into somebody else's life.

What strikes me is the fact that in our society, art has become something which is only related to objects, and not to individuals, or to life.

The beauty one can find in art is one of the pitifully few real and lasting products of human endeavor.

Art is always and everywhere the secret confession, and at the same time the immortal movement of its time.

Also, since art is a vehicle for the transmission of ideas through form, the reproduction of the form only reinforces the concept. It is the idea that is being reproduced. Anyone who understands the work of art owns it. We all own the Mona Lisa.

The older I get, I'm really reminded how important the arts are to our wellbeing as a society.

The artists of the past who impressed me were the ones who really focused their work.

The finest works of art are precious, among other reasons, because they make it possible for us to know, if only imperfectly and for a little while, what it actually feels like to think subtly and feel nobly.

The value of writing about art is its effect on the imagination. Paintings allow us to inhabit another culture, place, and time period, and address the issues of those time periods that resonate with our own time.

Without the meditative background that is criticism, works become isolated gestures, historical accidents, soon forgotten.

For art comes to you proposing frankly to give nothing but the highest quality to your moments as they pass, and simply for those moments' sake.

If you look at art history, at Goya or Gainsborough, it's always about acknowledging the people of your time who have influence.

Great Art is Great because it inspired you greatly. If it didn't, no matter what the critics, the museums and the galleries say, it's not great art for you.

We say arts education is good for general education, but that's not the point. The arts are what great nations are remembered for. They are a mirror.

The arts are a response to our individuality and our nature and help to shape our identity. The arts are not a frill and should not be treated as such.

… ideas are structures built over time, each part added by a new generation.

The arts are beyond price; they're beyond value. They're of incalculable worth in what it means to be a human being.

I think that a society lives or dies according to its respect for - for its art.