Vilayanur S. Ramachandran Quotes

I realize that every picture isn't a work of art.

I have to say that I reject somewhat the distinction between something called art and something called public art. I think all art demands and desires to be seen.

When art is defined by Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons, you've got a society that's impoverished.

An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision.

All bad art is the result of good intentions.

Art is not the spiritual side of business.

The fact that cartoons are reproduced doesn't mean anything to me as far as whether they are "real art" or not.

A work of art rests its merits in traditional qualities. It may constitute a remarkable feat in craftsmanship; it may be a searching study of psychological states; it may be a nostalgic glance backward; it may be any one of an infinite number of concepts, none of which may have any possible bearing upon its degree of newness.

There is nothing new in art except talent.

There is no reason for me to show my collection in New York, because it's not about craft and technique there.

Art doesn't transform. It just plain forms.

I make pictures and someone comes in and calls it art.

Life is very nice, but it lacks form. It's the aim of art to give it some.

The job of art is to chase ugliness away.

What I'm doing is art - it's low-brow art but there's a magic in that.

We're all going about trying to make beauty in the world and trying to make order out of chaos. And that's what art is.

People understand what art is supposed to look like, and so it's easy to make something that looks like art but isn't - especially in an abstract form.

Art is the most beautiful deception of all. And although people try to incorporate the everyday events of life in it, we must hope that it will remain a deception lest it become a utilitarian thing, sad as a factory.

People criticized me for my photography. They said it's not art.

There is only one valuable thing in art: the thing you cannot explain.

Style is the most valuable asset of the modern artist. That's probably why so many styles are reported lost or stolen each year.

Painting is the aesthetic side of the object but it has never been original, has never been its own goal.

Defining art is huge; I feel like it's such a subjective thing. It's more like what's not art. You know what I mean? I think there can be an art in the way people live their lives, and art can be a gift someone gives to somebody.

Art is a gift and if nobody hears it, that doesn't make it any less of a gift.

I think it was Roger Fry who first coined what he took to be a final definition of a work of art, whether it was a painting, building, poem or Hepplewhite chair. He said that the best works of art are finished products that preserve 'a valuable state of mind'.