Art is an absolute mistress; she will not be coquetted with or slighted; she requires the most entire self-devotion, and read more

Art is an absolute mistress; she will not be coquetted with or slighted; she requires the most entire self-devotion, and she repays with grand triumphs.

You study, you learn, but you guard the original naivete. It has to be within you, as desire for drink read more

You study, you learn, but you guard the original naivete. It has to be within you, as desire for drink is within the drunkard or love is within the lover.

The refusal to rest content, the willingness to risk excess on behalf of one's obsessions, is what distinguishes artists from read more

The refusal to rest content, the willingness to risk excess on behalf of one's obsessions, is what distinguishes artists from entertainers, and what makes some artists adventurers on behalf of us all.

Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad.

Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad.

The artist's world is limitless. It can be found anywhere, far from where he lives or a few feet away. read more

The artist's world is limitless. It can be found anywhere, far from where he lives or a few feet away. It is always on his doorstep.

Great art picks up where nature ends.

Great art picks up where nature ends.

The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so read more

The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life.

Everything that is beautiful and noble is the product of reason and calculation.

Everything that is beautiful and noble is the product of reason and calculation.

Feminist art is not some tiny creek running off the great river of real art. It is not some crack read more

Feminist art is not some tiny creek running off the great river of real art. It is not some crack in an otherwise flawless stone. It is, quite spectacularly I think, art which is not based on the subjugation of one half of the species. It is art which will take the great human themes --love, death, heroism, suffering, history itself --and render them fully human. It may also, though perhaps our imaginations are so mutilated now that we are incapable even of the ambition, introduce a new theme, one as great and as rich as those others --should we call it "joy"?.