Art Appreciation Quotes

Appreciation of works of art requires organized effort and systematic study. Art appreciation can no more be absorbed by aimless wandering in galleries than can surgery be learned by casual visits to a hospital. ~ Albert C. Barnes

One is reminded in this connection of a story concerning Kobori-Enshiu. Enshiu was complimented by his disciples on the admirable taste he had displayed in the choice of his [art] collection. Said they, "Each piece is such that no one could help admiring. It shows that you had better taste than had Rikiu, for his collection could only be appreciated by one beholder in a thousand." Sorrowfully Enshiu replied: "This only proves how commonplace I am. The great Rikiu dared to love only those objects which personally appealed to him, whereas I unconsciously cater to the taste of the majority. Verily, Rikiu was one in a thousand among tea-masters. ~ Kakuzo Okakura

In my own opinion, the average American's cultural shortcomings can be likened to those of the educated barbarians of ancient Rome. These were barbarians who learned to speak--and often to read and write--Latin. They acquired Roman habits of dress and deportment. Many of them handily mastered Roman commercial, engineering and military techniques--but they remained barbarians nonetheless. They failed to develop any understanding, appreciation or love for the art and culture of the great civilization around them. ~ J. Paul Getty

To maximize what you get out of your college experience, I want your friends to look at your semester schedule and say "this is the weirdest schedule I've ever seen!"
Trust me on this one. If you want to be an engineer, take Engineering 101, and a crash course in philosophical literature. then take Engineering 102, and art appreciation. then Engineering 103, and Intro to Women's Rights.
You will expand your knowledge and ways of looking at the world, and become a more powerful person for it. Because that way, when you encounter difficulties, you won't only tackle the problem from the point of view of an engineer. Anybody can do that. You will be able to look at it as a scientist, a philosopher, an artist, and choose the best course of action from there. ~ Anonymous

I am of the opinion that the appreciation and the desire for what is good takes more study and insight than does the understanding and test for the best music and art. ~ Laurance Rockefeller

To me, money is a means to do good. I reached a point in my life where I had enjoyed tremendous business success that afforded my family everything we could possibly want. My wife and I then decided that we could use our wealth to make a difference. So we created the Broad Foundations to do four things: to improve urban public education, to support innovative scientific and medical research, to foster art appreciation for audiences worldwide and to support civic initiatives in Los Angeles. ~ Eli Broad

It has been said that art is a tryst; for in the joy of it, maker and beholder meet. ~ Kojiro Tomita

The presence of excessive wealth puts an unnatural spin on the appreciation of art. ~ Steve Martin

Treat a work of art like a prince: let it speak to you first. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer

In my young days I praised the master whose pictures I liked, but as my judgment matured I praised myself for liking what the masters had chosen to have me like. ~ Okakura Kakuzo

For most people, art is only valuable if other people say it is; and artists are only worthwhile if they are either rich and famous, or dead. ~ Wayne Gerard Trotman

In art the Present is the eternal. ~ Kakuzo Okakura

Imagine members of an art appreciation society pleading in court that they 'believe' they need a hallucinogenic drug in order to enhance their understanding of Impressionist or Surrealist paintings. Yet, when a church claims an equivalent need, it is backed by the highest court in the land. Such is the power of religion as a talisman. ~ Richard Dawkins

A photograph is usually looked at- seldom looked into. ~ Ansel Adams

Personally, I experience the greatest degree of pleasure in having contact with works of art. They furnish me with happy feelings of an intensity that I cannot derive from other sources. ~ Albert Einstein

In one of the Upanishads it says, when the glow of a sunset holds you and you say 'Aha,' that is the recognition of the divinity. And when you say 'Aha' to an art object, that is a recognition of divinity. And what divinity is it? It is your divinity, which is the only divinity there is. We are all phenomenal manifestations of a divine will to live, and that will and the consciousness of life is one in all of us, and that is what artwork expresses. ~ Joseph Campbell

I learned more from my mother than from all the art historians and curators who have informed me about technical aspects of art history and art appreciation over the years. ~ David Rockefeller

One cannot escape from the world with greater certainty than through art, and one cannot relate to it with greater certainty than through art. ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

There is no patriotic art and no patriotic science. ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Thankfulness is an attitude of possibilities, not an attitude of liabilities. ~ Craig D. Lounsbrough

I want to make it clear: it's not that I hate mainstream cinema. It's perfectly fine. There are a lot of people who need to escape, because they are in very difficult situations, so they have the right to escape from the world. But this has nothing to do with an art form. ~ Michael Haneke

I'm a great believer in the hereafter, in karma, in reincarnation. It does make sense. I believe that God is not just a law-giver, but a creative artist. The greatest of all. And what characterises artists is that they want to redo their work. Maybe it didn't come off perfectly, so they want to see it done again, and improved. Reincarnation is a way for God to improve his earlier works. ~ Norman Mailer

Now I believe that true lasting change and sustainability--cultural or otherwise--must rely on something more ancient and universal: art--any form that evokes the archetypal imagery that lives deep in the human psyche--can, in words i once heard imparted by the author Terry Tempest Williams, "bypass rhetoric and pierce the heart. ~ Amy Irvine

There hasn't been any art yet. Art is just beginning. ~ Constantin Brancusi

Art teaches us to see into things. Folk art and kitsch allow us to see outward from within things. ~ Walter Benjamin

True art is creation, and creation is beyond all theories. That is why I say to any beginner: Learn your theories as well as you can, but put them aside when you touch the miracle of the living soul. Not theories but your own creative individuality alone must decide. ~ Carl Jung

(speaking of Ann Radcliffe) A work of art worthy of the name is one which gives us back the freshness of the emotions of childhood. ~ Andre Breton

The art of lighting the stage consists of putting light where you want it and taking it away from where you don't want it, ~ Max Reinhardt

I had to go on TV with the president of the Catholic League, which is not an official organization at all, just a lot of Catholics, or maybe it's just this guy. He demanded to de-fund art completely and argued that taxpayers should not pay for it. I said people who represent the Catholic Church shouldn't talk about taxes. ~ Fran Lebowitz

Architecture is like a mythical fantastic. It has to be experienced. It can't be described. We can draw it up and we can make models of it, but it can only be experienced as a complete whole. ~ Maya Lin

I always knew that I had to direct. That was something I'd wanted to do. Finally, I was just looking at the situation and I said, "I wanna document hip-hop, as an art form, seeing how a lot of people don't take it seriously." ~ Ice-T

An author knows his landscape best; he can stand around, smell the wind, get a feel for his place. ~ Tony Hillerman

It is clear, for example, that many Americans did not like the idea of avant-garde art, especially in relation to women's fashion. Many people were particularly indignant about what seemed to them the deliberate obliteration of sexual attractiveness, which they identified with the tightwaisted dress and the hourglass figure. ~ Valerie Steele

What constitutes a problem is not the thing, or the environment where we find the thing, but the conjunction of the two; something unexpected in a usual place (our favorite aunt in our favorite poker parlor) or something usual in an unexpected place (our favorite poker in our favorite aunt). I knew that my sampler was absolutely right in Elsie Norris's front room, but absolutely wrong in Mrs. Virtue's sewing class. Mrs. Virtue should either have had the imagination to commend me for my effort in context, or the farsightedness to realize there is a debate going on as to whether something has an absolute as well as a relative value; given that, she should have given me the benefit of the doubt.
As it was, she got upset and blamed me for her headache. ~ Jeanette Winterson

The best part of the art of living is to know how to grow old gracefully. ~ Eric Hoffer

Writing, like any art, is a continuing process of discovering the infinite possibilities of Life. ~ Hubert Selby, Jr.

To set but a low value upon toast is to expose one's deficiencies in right appreciation. ~ E. V. Lucas

Self-love is having appreciation for oneself, respecting oneself, and caring for oneself, and the actions that help us mature also help it grow. ~ Tisha Marie Payton, MHR

A man climbs a mountain because it is there. An artist makes a work of art because it is not there. ~ Carl Andre

God gives you an infinite amount of time. ~ Art Hochberg

Originally, I was interested in athletic pursuits like snowboarding, martial arts and surfing. When I went to the Himalayas and met a number of Buddhist monks I was introduced to a new way of looking at life. ~ Frederick Lenz

The rhythm of the heart...beats twice. Thump, thump. Once, first for itself and then once again for the rest of the body. It's a true metaphor for us. Like the heart we must pump life giving love and care for ourselves first, before extending that gift out to others. The heartbeat of every worthwhile relationship begins with a healthy, humble understanding and appreciation of our own personal self worth. When we do this the power to truly love and appreciate others pulsates fluidly and freely into all those we warmly choose to share our lives with. ~ Jason Versey

Politics: the art of appearing candid and completely open while concealing as much as possible. ~ Frank Herbert

I was always interested in the arts as a child - drawing, painting, and piano - but acting became a favourite. I was a major theatre geek in high school - if I wasn't in the drama room at lunch rehearsing, I'd be in the art room finishing up some type of project. ~ Laura Mennell

She grew up hard and she grew up fast, in the age of television. ~ Tom Petty

It is difficult for a fool's habits to change to selflessness. ~ Yamamoto Tsunetomo

Anything that had to do with art I been doing all my life. It was a gift. It's nothing I work real hard at doing. ~ Erykah Badu

He knows that there is something wrong, forbidden in what he is about to do, but he cannot help himself, for he is a fanatic. He is driven by a dark desire. To see, to feel, to discover is all. His is a passion, not a romance. ~ Richard Selzer

For me there is no difference between art and life. ~ Robert Rauschenberg

It is easy to love and sing one's love. That is something I am extremely good at doing. Indeed, that is my art. But to be loved, that is true greatness. Being loved, letting oneself be loved, entering the magic and dreadful circle of generosity, receiving gifts, finding the right thank-you's, that is love's real work. ~ Helene Cixous

For most of Western civilization there was no real division between the realms of science, divinity, and artistic endeavor - they were just three strands of the same braid, all of them pulling toward the same beautiful desire: to try to understand the workings of this curious and beautiful world. There were many people who would have called themselves all three things at once: men of god, men of science, men of the arts. ~ Elizabeth Gilbert

There is some other form that you contain within yourself that is not will or purpose and, when applied to art, serves you best. If you systematically apply to the art that you create the aggression of the world that turned you towards art in the first place; if you, in turn, become the aggressor towards your canvas, the thing that you're doing; if you, in turn, work your will upon this thing that you want - you will then cause a dissatisfaction in this life that you create. ~ Milton Resnick

I have seen them stagger out of their movie palaces and blink their empty eyes in the face of reality once more, and stagger home, to read the Times, to find out what's going on in the world. I have vomited at their newspapers, read their literature, observed their customs, eaten their food, desired their women, gaped at their art. But I am poor, and my name ends with a soft vowel, and they hate me and my father, and my father's father, and they would have my blood and put me down, but they are old now, dying in the sun and in the hot dust of the road, and I am young and full of hope and love for my country and my times, and when I say Greaser to you it is not my heart that speaks, but the quivering of an old wound, and I am ashamed of the terrible thing I have done. ~ John Fante

If you feel trapped in a situation and are complaining about it, figure out how to untrap yourself and stop complaining. Save your energy for further figuring out and when there is an increase in courage. ~ Art Hochberg