Art Quotes

“While a large segment of the art world has obsessed over a tiny number of stars and their prices, an aesthetic shift has been occurring. It's not a movement - movements are more sure of themselves. It's a change of mood or expectation, a desire for art to be more than showy effects, big numbers, and gamesmanship.”

-- Jerry Saltz

“A nation devoid of art and artists cannot have a full existence.”

-- Kemal Ataturk

“The counterfeit and counterpart of Nature is reproduced in art.”

-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.”

-- Emile Zola

“I think most of the people involved in any art always secretly wonder whether they are really there because they're good or there because they're lucky.”

-- Katharine Hepburn

“I have a small house so I borrow everything except art, that's what I love.”

-- Salma Hayek

“The principle of art is to pause, not bypass.”

-- Jerzy Kosinski

“Don't be an art critic. Paint. There lies salvation.”

-- Paul Cezanne

“When I am finishing a picture, I hold some God-made object up to it - a rock, a flower, the branch of a tree or my hand - as a final test. If the painting stands up beside a thing man cannot make, the painting is authentic. If there's a clash between the two, it's bad art.”

-- Marc Chagall

“Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock.”

-- Will Rogers