Walter Darby Bannard Quotes

When art writing seems incomprehensible, chances are it is.

Good art looks new because the artist has recombined something old to make something better.

Stale artifacts of the past' are always 'active components of the present moment' when they are experienced in the present moment.

Very few people ever understand art. If you are lucky, they will buy it for the wrong reasons.

Postmodernism is silly and joyless at the same time.

An ivory tower is a fine place as long as the door is open.

Of course I will look at anything, but I have not got the time or the patience to keep on looking at art that I know could be better. I don't want art that needs fixing, I want art that sends me back to the studio to fix my own.

When anything can be art, art is not much of anything.

Good art has everything you need to know about it in the work, not on a wall label. Art is here to take us beyond language.

Originality is way overrated. To make, you need to take. All great artists do.

Truth is not always hard to find; it is often staring you in the face. The problem with truth is that it is hard to believe. It is even harder to get other people to believe.

If we see an object as a bowl, it may inhibit seeing it as craft, just as seeing it as craft might inhibit seeing it as art. See first; name later.

Too much freedom inhibits choice. Constructive narrowness clarifies choice.

Postmodernism does not facilitate better art. It rationalizes inferior art by wrapping it in words - a suit of armor with nobody inside.

The power of art is not in communication but effect; what it does, not what it relates.

When making a painting, only one thing counts: what you do next.

Nothing is as hopeless as trying to justify art in words.

Always let intuitive perception precede analysis.

Art flows more easily when you are not thinking about what 'should' be in it or how it 'should' be done. The Impressionists taught us to look and see, not assume.

When you make the obvious mysterious, then the mysterious becomes unavailable.

Conceptual art' is an oxymoron. Concepts are articulations of fact or supposition, not attributes of quality.

Big minds have big ideas. Small minds use big ideas to justify bad ideas.

When anyone can produce dreck or publish gibberish, and not only get away with it but be celebrated for it, the discipline is no longer a discipline, and it will get no respect.

No high-minded painter of the last fifty years has been able to come to terms with his art without coming to terms with the problem of cubism.

It matters little if something is 'craft' or 'art.' The question is only this: does it give me pleasure?

Don't burden art with words and ideas. Art comes from a deeper place.

Power is like money. Some know how to get it; few know how to use it.

Art may be for the privileged few but they have earned the privilege and deny it to no one.

The struggle to be original hates conformity, but the struggle to be better disregards it, or takes advantage of it to build workable conventions.

Don't apologize, justify or rationalize bad art or bad writing. If you do, you are part of it.

Asking art to express ideas is like asking a Sumo wrestler to play charades.

Science is a matter of adjusting language to explain material reality. Art is a matter of adjusting material reality to create a sense of life.

Limitation of means is a precondition of excellence. Creative freedom chooses its limitations. Destructive freedom rejects them heedlessly.

The art consensus is not criteria, it is convenience.

Talent is like a seed which needs fertile soil. There is no less talent now, there is less fertile soil to nourish it.

There is no regional art. The only region left is the art magazine.

Good new art may not look like art. Inspiration doesn't follow style, it creates it.

A clear idea about the nature of quality in art will always result in inferior art tailored to it.

Art that wants to be felt does not have the need to be admired.

A critic without a good eye is a eunuch in a harem.

When good ideas get put to bad use, it is the fault of the user, not the idea.

Most 'profound truths' are just timely ideas.

Craft' gets a bad rap. Mediocre art is not caused by craft; it is caused by artists. Good art employs whatever craft works best.

If art depended on content, then one painting of an apple would be as good as the next one.

Postmodernism is Modernism with Alzheimer's.

Complete freedom debilitates art but reveals much about character.

When inspiration dies, imitation thrives.

Most people find facts irritating. Facts interfere with their systems of denial.

Start a painting with fresh ideas, and then let the painting replace your ideas with its ideas.

In art there is no absolute good or bad, but it is absolute that there is good and bad.

Making art is like swimming underwater in a blindfold.

Writing about art is only useful when it leads to the experience of art.

There are too many artists, too many dealers and too much art.

Most art is just surface noise.