For many reading art quotes that belong to a particular artist can give a view port into the artists mind.
It is one thing to view and analyze an artists body of work, but when you hear them talk about their art it adds an extra dimension to your impression of that artist.
Here are some of our favorite quotes about art:
Famous Art Quotes
“Art is never finished, only abandoned.” – Leonardo da Vinci
“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” – Vincent van Gogh
“Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.” – Pablo Picasso
“Color is my day-long obsession, joy, and torment.” – Claude Monet
“Creativity takes courage.” – Henri Matisse
“A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.” – Paul Cézanne
“What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?” – Vincent van Gogh
“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” – Pablo Picasso
“I do not literally paint that table, but the emotion it produces upon me.” – Henri Matisse
“I am seeking. I am striving. I am in it with all my heart.” – Vincent van Gogh
“Painting is self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is.” – Jackson Pollock
“A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black.” – Camille Pissarro
“If you hear a voice within you say, ‘You cannot paint,’ then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.” – Vincent van Gogh
“I dream my painting and I paint my dream.” – Vincent van Gogh
“To be an artist is to believe in life.” – Henry Moore
“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” – Michelangelo
“Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad.” – Salvador Dalí
“An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision.” – James McNeill Whistler
“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” – Pablo Picasso
“The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.” – Francis Bacon
“I paint flowers so they will not die.” – Frida Kahlo
“Art must be an integral part of the struggle.” – Diego Rivera
“The painter constructs, the photographer reveals.” – Paul Strand
“You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.” – George Bernard Shaw
“The only time I feel alive is when I’m painting.” – Vincent van Gogh
“The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there; I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.” – Michelangelo
“The artist must create a spark before he can make a fire and before art is born, the artist must be ready to be consumed by the fire of his own creation.” – Auguste Rodin
“I choose a block of marble and chop off whatever I don’t need.” – Auguste Rodin
“Sculpture is the art of the intelligence.” – Pablo Picasso
“What we need is more sense of the wonder of life and less of this business of making a picture.” – Henry Moore
“Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.” – Michelangelo
“Art is not a handicraft, it is the transmission of feeling the artist has experienced.” – Leo Tolstoy
“To sculpt is to communicate directly with the hand and the stone.” – Barbara Hepworth
“The best artist has that thought alone which is contained within the marble shell.” – Michelangelo
“A sculptor is a person obsessed with the form and shape of things.” – Henry Moore
“I saw, I thought, I imagined, and I carved.” – Barbara Hepworth
“Movement is the translation of life.” – Isamu Noguchi
“A work of art is the trace of a magnificent struggle.” – Robert Henri
“Sculpture is a parable, an image in stone.” – Isamu Noguchi
“Art comes from the observation and interpretation of nature.” – Claus Oldenburg
“Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.” – Twyla Tharp
“The whole world, as we experience it visually, comes to us through the mystic realm of color.” – Hans Hofmann
“You don’t need to create a monument. Sculpture is about rhythm, gesture, and the movement of life.” – Alberto Giacometti
“What distinguishes sculpture is that it is in relation to the space it inhabits.” – Donald Judd
“In every block of marble, there’s a form trying to break free.” – Michelangelo
“I am constantly pushing against myself to reach perfection, but perfection doesn’t exist in art.” – Constantin Brâncuși
“Sculpture is the expression of the essence of life.” – Henry Moore
“I never paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my own reality.” – Frida Kahlo
“Photography is the story I fail to put into words.” – Destin Sparks
“A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know.” – Diane Arbus
“To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event.” – Henri Cartier-Bresson
“Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.” – Dorothea Lange
“The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.” – Dorothea Lange
“A good photograph is knowing where to stand.” – Ansel Adams
“There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.” – Ansel Adams
“Photography is an immediate reaction, drawing is a meditation.” – Henri Cartier-Bresson
“A photograph is usually looked at—seldom looked into.” – Ansel Adams
“The painter constructs, the photographer reveals.” – Susan Sontag
“When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs.” – Ansel Adams
“The camera makes you forget you’re there. It’s not like you are hiding but you forget, you are just looking so much.” – Annie Leibovitz
“The whole point of taking pictures is so that you don’t have to explain things with words.” – Elliott Erwitt
“Which of my photographs is my favorite? The one I’m going to take tomorrow.” – Imogen Cunningham
“In photography, there is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality.” – Alfred Stieglitz
“Photography deals exquisitely with appearances, but nothing is what it appears to be.” – Duane Michals
“Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second.” – Marc Riboud
“We are making photographs to understand what our lives mean to us.” – Ralph Hattersley
“You don’t take a photograph, you make it.” – Ansel Adams
“The Earth is art, the photographer is only a witness.” – Yann Arthus-Bertrand
“Photography helps people to see.” – Berenice Abbott
“Photographs open doors into the past, but they also allow a look into the future.” – Sally Mann
“A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed.” – Ansel Adams
“A photograph can be an instant of life captured for eternity.” – Brigitte Bardot
“Photography is the art of making memories tangible.” – Destin Sparks
“The camera sees more than the eye, so why not make use of it?” – Edward Weston
“To consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk.” – Edward Weston
“A photograph is the pause button of life.” – Ty Holland
“I think good dreaming is what leads to good photographs.” – Wayne Miller
“Look and think before opening the shutter. The heart and mind are the true lens of the camera.” – Yousuf Karsh
“In photography, there are no shadows that cannot be illuminated.” – August Sander
“Photography is truth.” – Jean-Luc Godard
“There is one thing the photograph must contain, the humanity of the moment.” – Robert Frank
“The subject matter is so much more important than the photographer.” – Gordon Parks
“When I have a camera in my hand, I know no fear.” – Alfred Eisenstaedt
“A picture is a secret about a secret, the more it tells you, the less you know.” – Diane Arbus
“The eye should learn to listen before it looks.” – Robert Frank
“Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.” – Henri Cartier-Bresson
“What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever.” – Karl Lagerfeld
“A picture is worth a thousand words.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
“Photography is a love affair with life.” – Burk Uzzle
“The negative is the equivalent of the composer’s score, and the print the performance.” – Ansel Adams
“Black and white are the colors of photography.” – Robert Frank
“I see something special and show it to the camera.” – Sam Abell
“When people ask me what equipment I use, I tell them my eyes.” – Anonymous
“Photography is an austere and blazing poetry of the real.” – Ansel Adams
“I wish that all of nature’s magnificence, the emotion of the land, the living energy of place could be photographed.” – Annie Leibovitz
“A good snapshot keeps a moment from running away.” – Eudora Welty
“Light makes photography. Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light.” – George Eastman
“Photography is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art.” – Ansel Adams
“The whole point of photography is that you don’t have to explain things with words.” – Elliott Erwitt
“A photograph is an opportunity to share a vision of the world.” – Sebastião Salgado