Good Art Quotes

A good artist has less time than ideas. ~ Martin Kippenberger

What makes art Christian art? Is it simply Christian artists painting biblical subjects like Jeremiah? Or, by attaching a halo, does that suddenly make something Christian art? Must the artist's subject be religious to be Christian? I don't think so. There is a certain sense in which art is its own justification. If art is good art, if it is true art, if it is beautiful art, then it is bearing witness to the Author of the good, the true, and the beautiful ~ R.C. Sproul

Good art however "immoral" is wholly a thing of virtue. Good art can not be immoral. By good art I mean art that bears true witness, I mean the art that is most precise. ~ Ezra Pound

Propaganda rarely makes good art. ~ Susan Sutherland Isaacs

What the world needs right now ... a good, artistic, gothic, terrifying scare ~ Iggy Pop

I know for sure that God can do whatever He wants to do. He's called me to be faithful to do good art, to lift up Jesus and that's what I'm going to do and I'll let the Lord take care of the rest. ~ Trip Lee

In dark times, the definition of good art would seem to be art that locates and applies CPR to those elements of what's human and magical that still live and glow despite the times' darkness. ~ D.T. Max

Science is not just there for technology. It's part of what addressing who you are in the universe and understanding your place in the cosmos. Good art, good literature, good music - all of that is for that and science is a part of it. ~ Lawrence M. Krauss

We'd probably most of us agree that these are dark times, and stupid ones, but do we need fiction that does nothing but dramatize how dark and stupid everything is? In dark times, the definition of good art would seem to be art that locates and applies CPR to those elements of what's human and magical that still live and glow despite the times' darkness. Real good fiction could have as dark a worldview as it wished, but it'd find a way both to depict this world and to illuminate the possibilities for being alive and human in it. ~ David Foster Wallace

The consensus seems to be this: we should be deeply Christian artists. But that doesn't mean we should be something called Christian artists or that whatever we produce should be called Christian art. We should simply focus on our craft, on making the best art we can. We should understand that people will and should resonate with our work not because it is Christian but because it is good. Above all, Christians should make good art, true art; art unafraid of exploring mystery, portraying evil, and looking for truth wherever it appears. ~ Brett McCracken

Economy is essential to all good art. ~ Jerry Seinfeld

All good art has contained both abstract and surrealist elements, just as it has contained both classical and romantic elements - order and surprise, intellect and imagination, conscious and unconscious. BOTH SIDES of the artist's personality must play their part. ~ Henry Moore

My argument would be that I don't think there is much that's genuinely political art that is good art. ~ Thom Yorke

Good art is becoming hard to find these days. With political correctness, the internet, globalization, and multiculturalism, people are becoming pressured to be the same as everyone else, act the same, and express themselves in the same way. Great art will soon be as rare as gold or diamonds. ~ Robert Black

If losing a fight is the worst thing that's ever happened to you in your life, you're doing pretty good. ~ Randy Couture

Although all the good arts serve to draw man's mind away from vices and lead it toward better things, this function can be more fully performed by this art, which also provides extraordinary intellectual pleasure. ~ Nicolaus Copernicus

There's not much high and low culture any more: there's just mingling streams of art and what matters is whether it's good art or bad art. ~ Neil Gaiman

Good art theory must smell of the studio, although its language should differ from the household talk of painters and sculptors. ~ Rudolf Arnheim

Sometimes life is hard. Things go wrong - in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all the other ways that life can go wrong. And when things get tough, this is what you should do: make good art ... Someone on the internet thinks what you're doing is stupid or evil or it's all been done before: make good art. Probably things will work out somehow, eventually time will take the sting away, and it doesn't even matter. Do what only you can do best: make good art. ~ Neil Gaiman

The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different than that from which it is torn. ~ T. S. Eliot

Understanding is a form of blindness. Good art, I think, can never be understood. ~ Robert Rauschenberg

I'm learning about filming, and just conceptualizing as well. I think it's a good artistic inroad, even to music as well. ~ Stevie Jackson

Great art - or good art - is when you look at it, experience it and it stays in your mind. I don't think conceptual art and traditional art are all that different. ~ Damien Hirst

To be a good artist, you have to serve the work of art and allow it to be what it is supposed to be. ~ Larry Wall

Bad art has the power to deform a people just as good art generates new reflection, growth, vision, and hope. ~ Michel O'Brien

I like to imagine that the Neanderthals were all really good artists. ~ Jim Drain

The art market is global now, and there's becoming more of an international consensus about what constitutes good art. ~ Larry Gagosian

I think good art should always be entertaining, or at least give pleasure of some sort. And my chief goal as a writer has always been to tell a good story and give my readers a good time. ~ Kenneth Oppel

If it's good art, it's good. ~ Kenneth Branagh

Neil Gaiman's "Make Good Art" commencement speech, which he gave at Philadelphia's University of the Arts. I've watched the video dozens of times on YouTube during rough periods. Our mutual favorite portion is "The moment that you feel that, just possibly, you're walking down the street naked, exposing too much of your heart and your mind and what exists on the inside, showing too much of yourself. That's the moment you may be starting to get it right." And, yes, ~ Timothy Ferriss

Compassion may be called the fundamental of all good art because it alone can tell you what other beings feel and experience. Only compassion severs the bonds of your personal limitations, and gives you deep access into the inner life of the character you study, without which you cannot properly prepare it for the stage ~ Michael Chekhov

Good art is not universal. Bruce Willis is universal. ~ Sherman Alexie

I train about four or five times a week. I guess I am addicted to it. I also do a lot of martial arts. More than I have done in awhile. I like to go back to martial arts because it makes me feel good. ~ Dolph Lundgren

Social Engineering - The art of replacing what works with what sounds good. ~ Thomas Sowell

Art that only comes from the head isn't any good. ~ Austin Kleon

I colour for a living. When I am a good artist, the only difference between me and a child is that I am more wrinkled. When I am not being a good artist, the only difference between me and a child is every difference imaginable. ~ Janice Tanton

It is obvious that art cannot teach anyone anything, since in four thousand years humanity has learnt nothing at all. We should long ago have become angels had we been capable of paying attention to the experience of art, and allowing ourselves to be changed in accordance with the ideals it expresses. Art only has the capacity, through shock and catharsis, to make the human soul receptive to good. It's ridiculous to imagine that people can be taught to be good…Art can only give food – a jolt – the occasion – for psychical experience. ~ Andrei Tarkovsky

One of the things my career as an artist might say to young artists is: The things that are close to you are the things you can photograph the best. And unless you photograph what you love, you are not going to make good art. ~ Sally Mann

Sometimes you may feel "I don't fit in here." Good. ~ Art Hochberg

All forms of madness, bizarre habits, awkwardness in society, general clumsiness, are justified in the person who creates good art. ~ Roman Payne

Good art shows us how difficult it is to be objective by showing us how differently the world looks to an objective vision. ~ Iris Murdoch

All good art is abstract in its structure. ~ Paul Strand

TODAY IS A GREAT DAY TO MAKE ART. ~ M. Kirin

Making art, good art, is always a struggle. It can make you happy when you pull it off. There's no better feeling. It's beauteous. But it's always about hard work and inspiration and sweat and good ideas. ~ Damien Hirst

And then there are painters who never do anything that is no good, who cannot do anything bad, just as there are ordinary people who can do nothing but good. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

The discovery of useful forms is precious. Once found, they should never be abandoned for trivial reasons. It's easy to imagine today's art instructor cautioning Chopin that the Mazurka thing is getting a little repetitive, that the work is not progressing. Well, true, it may not have been progressing - but that's not the issue. Writing Mazurkas may have been useful only to Chopin - as a vehicle for getting back into the work, and as a place to begin making the next piece. For most artists, making good art depends upon making lots of art, and any device that carries the first brushstroke to the next blank canvas has tangible, practical value. Only ~ David Bayles

There's no "correct path" to becoming a real artist. You might think you'll gain legitimacy by going to art school, getting published, getting signed to a record label. But it's all bullshit, and it's all in your head. You're an artist when you say you are. And you're a good artist when you make somebody else experience or feel something deep or unexpected. ~ Amanda Palmer

On the levels of politics and theology, beauty is perfectly compatible with nonsense and tyranny. Which is very fortunate; for if beauty were incompatible with non­sense and tyranny, there would be precious little art in the world. The masterpieces of painting, sculpture and architecture were produced as religious or political propaganda, for the greater glory of a god, a govern­ment or a priesthood. But most kings and priests have been despotic and all religions have been riddled with superstition. Genius has been the servant of tyranny and art has advertised the merits of the local cult. Time, as it passes, separates the good art from the bad meta­physics. Can we learn to make this separation, not after the event, but while it is actually taking place? That is the question. ~ Aldous Huxley

I really think there's no difference between an art piece made by a man and one made by a woman. Is it a good art piece or a bad art piece? Of course, if you're female, you're maybe dealing with different issues. ~ Marina Abramovic

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

Animation is tremendously resilient. Animation will recover, as art always recovers. There's always cycles of good art. ~ Ralph Bakshi

The mark of all good art is not that the thing done is done exactly or finely, for machinery may do as much, but that it is worked out with the head and the workman's heart. ~ Oscar Wilde

I am concerned with social and environmental issues. What rational person is not? But advocacy and art do not mix. Art is a seduction. Good art invites the reader to think and feel deeply and come to his/her own conclusions. ~ T.C. Boyle

When I was in art school, we were looking one day at a slide of some great fifteenth century painting, and one of the students asked 'Why don't artists paint like that now?' The room suddenly got quiet. Though rarely asked out loud, this question lurks uncomfortably in the back of every art student's mind. It was as if someone had brought up the topic of lung cancer in a meeting within Philip Morris.

'Well,' the professor replied, 'we're interested in different questions now.' He was a pretty nice guy, but at the time I couldn't help wishing I could send him back to fifteenth century Florence to explain in person to Leonardo & Co. how we had moved beyond their early, limited concept of art. Just imagine that conversation.

In fact, one of the reasons artists in fifteenth century Florence made such great things was that they believed you could make great things. They were intensely competitive and were always trying to outdo one another, like mathematicians or physicists today - maybe like anyone who has ever done anything really well.

The idea that you could make great things was not just a useful illusion. They were actually right. So the most important consequence of realizing there can be good art is that it frees artists to try to make it. ~ Paul Graham

I like good stories above all else ... and kickin' art really goes the final stretch to ensure a comic is good. ~ Robert Kirkman

Music makes me alive in a way that nothing quite does. Good art, good film, good books, good dance. Exhibitions, history. Nature makes me feel alive. Georgia in the rain - that makes me feel alive. Compassion makes me feel alive. Hard fought victories for social rights. ~ Emily Saliers

Every time it's the same. It's easy to prove to myself that good pictures are elusive, but I can never quite believe they're also inevitable. It would be a lot easier for me to believe they were if I also believed that they came as a result of my obvious talent, that I was extraordinary in some way. Artists go out of their way to reinforce the perception that good art is made by singular people, people with an exceptional gift. But I don't believe I am that exceptional, so what is this that I'm making? ~ Sally Mann

Nothing is as dangerous in architecture as dealing with separated problems. If we split life into separated problems we split the possibilities to make good building art. ~ Alvar Aalto

The hardest part is setting the camera on the tripod, or making the decision to bring the camera out of the car, or just raising the camera to your face, believing, by those actions, that whatever you find before you, whatever you find there, is going to be good. ~ Sally Mann

Serious and good art has always existed to help, to serve, humanity. Not to indict. ~ Chinua Achebe

Much good art got made while money ruled; I like a lot of it, and hardship and poverty aren't virtues. The good news is that, since almost no one will be selling art, artists - especially emerging ones - won't have to think about turning out a consistent style or creating a brand. They'll be able to experiment as much as they want. ~ Jerry Saltz

I do have that mindset - that most good art comes from some turmoil, from someone trying to come to some equilibrium, or come up and get a breath. ~ Ben Folds

Whenever I listen to an artist or an art historian I'm struck by how much they see and how much they know--and how much I don't.

Good art writing should therefore do at least two things. It should teach us how to look: at art, architecture, sculpture, photography and all the other visual components of our daily landscape. And it should give us the information we need to understand what we're looking at. ~ William Zinsser

The writer doesn't need economic freedom. All he needs is a pencil and some paper. I've never known anything good in writing to come from having accepted any free gift of money. The good writer never applies to a foundation. He's too busy writing something. If he isn't first rate he fools himself by saying he hasn't got time or economic freedom. Good art can come out of thieves, bootleggers, or horse swipes. People really are afraid to find out just how much hardship and poverty they can stand. They are afraid to find out how tough they are. ~ William Faulkner

All kids, when they go to school, are pretty good artists and dancers and singers and poets. All that gets buried, basically through being educated, or brainwashed. ~ William Wiley

A good traveler has no fixed plans
and is not intent upon arriving.
A good artist lets his intuition
lead him wherever it wants.
A good scientist has freed himself of concepts
and keeps his mind open to what is.
Thus the Master is available to all people
and doesn't reject anyone.
He is ready to use all situations
and doesn't waste anything.
This is called embodying the light.
What is a good man but a bad man's teacher?
What is a bad man but a good man's job?
If you don't understand this, you will get lost,
however intelligent you are.
It is the great secret. ~ Lao-Tzu

I don't understand how any good art could fail to be political. ~ Barbara Kingsolver

Let us prove to the world that good taste, good art, and good writing can be good selling. ~ William Bernbach

Art, well good art at least, takes you to a place you go during the experience of it, and then after you experience it you are different. ~ Nile Rodgers

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. ~ Walter Darby Bannard

Do not fail, as you go on, to draw something every day, for no matter how little it is, it will be well worthwhile, and it will do you a world of good. ~ Cennino Cennini

There can be no good art that is international. Art to be vigorous and gesund must use the material at hand. ~ Stevie Smith

Well, I'm not defining good and bad art, except, that art that appeals to me or repels me is good. Art that bores me is bad. ~ Lucien Carr

If you wish to make good art, then you must believe you already do. Otherwise, you will never be good enough. ~ Luhraw

This was never about the money ... Don't you understand? A world without good art is a far more dangerous place than one you don't get paid for making it in. ~ Dimitri Zaik

I think good art does come from a dark place. ~ Rick Springfield

Is there anyone who has ever written so much as a love letter in which he felt that he had said exactly what he intended? A writer falsifies himself both intentionally and unintentionally. Intentionally, because the accidental qualities of words constantly tempt and frighten him away from his true meaning. He gets an idea, begins trying to express it, and then, in the frightful mess of words that generally results, a pattern begins to form itself more or less accidentally. It is not by any means the pattern he wants, but it is at any rate not vulgar or disagreeable; it is good art. He takes it because good art is a more or less mysterious gift from heaven, and it seems a pity to waste it when it presents itself. ~ George Orwell

Men are not suffering from the lack of good literature, good art, good theatre, good music, but from that which has made it impossible for these to become manifest. In short, they are suffering from the silent shameful conspiracy (the more shameful since it is unacknowledged) which has bound them together as enemies of art and artists. ~ Henry Miller

The spirit of love and good art have equal beauty ~ Masahisa Goi

That's the beauty of music, art, and video games: forget about your worries for a few minutes; it shouldn't add to them or make you feel worried or sad: it should make you feel good. ~ Lights

I cannot tell good art from bad art. I have no eye for it. ~ Seth MacFarlane

To be a good artist / letterer / designer / guitar player it takes practice. A lot of it. More than you can even fathom when you're starting out. ~ Jessica Hische

Bad art was as good as good art. Grammar and spelling were no longer important. To be clean was no better than to be filthy. Good manners were no better than bad. Family life was derided as an outdated bourgeois concept. Criminals deserved as much sympathy as their victims. Many homes and classrooms became disorderly - if there was neither right nor wrong there could be no basis for punishment or reward. Violence and soft pornography became accepted in the media. Thus was sown the wind, and we are now reaping the whirlwind. ~ Norman Tebbit

Good art is born from knowing yourself deeply: Your art cannot hide how much you have discovered about yourself. ~ Zhang Xiaogang

All good art cannot help but confront denial on its way to truth. ~ Pete Townshend

As I see it, Christians should make good art, that shows forth truth & beauty for all, or make art that is for a specific purpose within the church. Making subpar cheesy art for Christians to consume comfortably is a tragedy for everyone. ~ Dustin Kensrue

Bad art is from no one to no one. ~ Sarah Manguso

Somebody on the Internet thinks what you do is stupid or evil, or it's all been done before? Make good art. ~ Neil Gaiman

As Christians, we must see that just because an artist -even a great artist- portrays a worldview in writing or on canvas, it does not mean that we should automatically accept that worldview. Good art heightens the impact of that worldview, but it does not make it true. ~ Francis A. Schaeffer

Good art is always dangerous, always open-ended. Once you put it out in the world you lose control of it; people will fit it into their minds in all sorts of different ways. ~ Greil Marcus

Good science and good art are always about a condition of awe ... I don't think there is any other function for the poet or the scientist in the human tribe but the astonishment of the soul. ~ Derek Walcott

Good art looks new because the artist has recombined something old to make something better. ~ Walter Darby Bannard

All art is fundamentally subversive, because it upsets people's perceptions, their notions about society. Therefore, art is dangerous, but good art is always making us reassess our thoughts and feelings about how we relate to other people. There are always people who fear that and want to suppress that. ~ John Boorman

Bad art is never really enjoyed in the same sense in which good art is enjoyed. It is only "liked": it never startles, prostrates, and takes captive. ~ C.S. Lewis

I was a jock, hardcore sports all the way down the line, but I heard that if you auditioned for this arts school, you got time off school, and that sounded good to me. ~ Jake Epstein

There is no perception without memory. But good art surprise us. Good art reorients our expectations, forces us to break the pattern, to see in a new way. ~ Siri Hustvedt

Art is not special sauce applied to ordinary cooking; it is the cooking itself if it is good. ~ William Lethaby

I think everyone who does something creative has got some kind of flaw or insecurity that helps drive them to do what they do. As a general rule, artists value themselves quite low, that's why they want to add value by doing things. Weaknesses often become your biggest strengths. People with no insecurities don't tend to make very good art. ~ Mike Skinner

Some people act as though art that is for a mass audience is not good art, and I think this has been a very negative thing. I know that I have wanted very much to write books that are accessible to the widest audience possible. ~ Bell Hooks

All that matters on the stage is good art. ~ Jerzy Jeszke