Ordinary things have always seemed numinous to me
I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous, or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular, but because it never forgot what it could do.
Christ moves along the pots and pans.
Well, I'm rather attracted to rather prosaic things like vacuum cleaners and hand dryers. Where people haven't apparently made them with a great love for what they're doing.
Theory may be deliberate, as in a chapter on chemistry, or it may be second nature, as in the immemorial doctrine of ordinary enduring middle-sized physical objects.
Like when I'm in the bathroom looking at my toilet paper, I'm like 'Wow! That's toilet paper?' I don't know if we appreciate how much we have.
"You know you are seeing such a photograph if you say to yourself, "I could have taken that picture. I've seen such a scene before, but never like that." It is the kind of photography that relies for its strengths not on special equipment or effects but on the intensity of the photographer's seeing. It is the kind of photography in which the raw materials-light, space, and shape-are arranged in a meaningful and even universal way that gives grace to ordinary objects."
Anything that excites me for any reason, I will photograph; not searching for unusual subject matter, but making the commonplace unusual.
What is there of the divine in a load of brick? What ... in a barber shop? ... Much. All.
In the history of art there are periods when bread seems so beautiful that it nearly gets into museums.
I am for the art of underwear and the art of taxicabs. I am for the art of ice cream cones dropped on concrete.
Asked what role he believes art plays in society, Baselitz replied, 'The same role as a good shoe, nothing more.
I like things that are simple, such as an alarm clock.
One wanted, she thought, dipping her brush deliberately, to be on a level with ordinary experience, to feel simply that's a chair, that's a table, and yet at the same time, It's a miracle, it's an ecstasy.
Most art in the world does not have a capital 'A,' but is a way of turning everyday objects into personal expressions.
People think how a sugar basin has no physiognomy, no soul. But it changes every day.
It's always been my philosophy to try to make art out of the everyday and ordinary...it never occurred to me to leave home to make art.
I don't think one gets to choose the kind of comedy he/she does. I may not talk about Rahul Gandhi's take on an ordinance, but I will talk about things as simple as a 'chappal' or a 'sherwani.' My comedy is about small things, and that is how it connects.
I think an ashtray is the most fantastically real thing.
In an artwork you're always looking for artistic decisions, so an ashtray is perfect. An ashtray has got life and death.
Common objects become strangely uncommon when removed from their context and ordinary ways of being seen.
The brown paper bag is the only thing civilized man has produced that does not seem out of place in nature.
One does not contemplate it like a picture. The idea of contemplation disappears completely. Simply take note that it's a bottle rack, or that it's a bottle rack that has changed its destination... It's not the visual question of the readymade that counts; it's the fact that it exists, even.
What people sometimes interpret as quirky is my attempt to subvert the concept of luxury by introducing elements that are considered ordinary or commonplace.
I think what I tend to do is look at all the very ordinary things that are around the house and imagine bringing them to life.
