[Abstract art is] a product of the untalented, sold by the unprincipled to the utterly1 bewildered.
Al Capp (1909 - 1979)
Art is the imposing2 of a pattern on experience, and our aesthetic3 enjoyment4 is recognition of the pattern.
Alfred North Whitehead (1861 - 1947), Dialogues (1954)
Painting: The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather and exposing them to the critic.
Ambrose Bierce (1842 - 1914), The Devil's Dictionary
Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in.
Amy Lowell (1874 - 1925)
Art is a collaboration5 between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better.
Andre Gide (1869 - 1951)
I have often thought that if photography were difficult in the true sense of the term -- meaning that the creation of a simple photograph would entail6 as much time and effort as the production of a good watercolor or etching -- there would be a vast improvement in total output. The sheer ease with which we can produce a superficial image often leads to creative disaster.
Ansel Adams (1902 - 1984)
Let each man exercise the art he knows.
Aristophanes (450 BC - 388 BC), Wasps7, 422 B.C.
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)
Art does not exist only to entertain, but also to challenge one to think, to provoke, even to disturb, in a constant search for truth.
Barbra Streisand (1942 - )
I believe that if it were left to artists to choose their own labels, most would choose none.
Ben Shahn (1898 - 1969)
So you see, imagination needs moodling - long, inefficient8, happy idling, dawdling9 and puttering.
Brenda Ueland
I suppose no matter what I'm drawing, there will always be some sort of question in my mind about it. A work of art (even cartoon art)is never really finished; it is abandoned.
Brooke McEldowney, Pibgorn commentary, 03-31-05
I can't criticize what I don't understand. If you want to call this art, you've got the benefit of all my doubts.
Charles Rosin, Northern Exposure, Aurora10 Borealis, 1990
Art is born of the observation and investigation11 of nature.
Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC)
Art forms of the past were really considered elitist. Bach did not compose for the masses, neither did Beethoven. It was always for patrons, aristocrats12, and royalty13. Now we have a sort of democratic version of that, which is to say that the audience is so splintered in its interests.
David Cronenberg, Rocketboom, 07-19-06
The idea of a mass audience was really an invention of the Industrial Revolution.
David Cronenberg, Rocketboom, 07-19-06
I don't understand why people think everything has to have meaning. While painting the Mona Lisa did Leonardo Da Vinci intend for it to have greater meaning than a work of art that he made?
Devin J. Monroe (1983 - )
If you were in a burning house and there was a cat and a Rembrandt, what would you save? The cat...you would save the cat, because the cat is alive. The art is dead. It's just paint on a canvas, ink on a page. To live for art is to deny life. It's just to destroy life.
Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider, Northern Exposure, Cicely, 1992
I merely took the energy it takes to pout14 and wrote some blues15.
Duke Ellington (1899 - 1974)
Works of art, in my opinion, are the only objects in the material universe to possess internal order, and that is why, though I don't believe that only art matters, I do believe in Art for Art's sake.
E. M. Forster (1879 - 1970)
Another unsettling element in modern art is that common symptom of immaturity16, the dread17 of doing what has been done before.
Edith Wharton (1862 - 1937)
Art is on the side of the oppressed. Think before you shudder18 at the simplistic dictum and its heretical definition of the freedom of art. For if art is freedom of the spirit, how can it exist within the oppressors?
Edith Wharton (1862 - 1937)
A painting in a museum hears more ridiculous opinions than anything else in the world.
Edmond de Goncourt (1822 - 1896)
It is all very well, when the pen flows, but then there are the dark days when imagination deserts one, and it is an effort to put anything down on paper. That little you have achieved stares at you at the end of the day, and you know the next morning you will have to scrape it down and start again.
Elizabeth Aston, The True Darcy Spirit, 2006
Illusions are art, for the feeling person, and it is by art that you live, if you do.
Elizabeth Bowen (1899 - 1973)
Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain19 it in anything.
Eugene Delacroix (1798 - 1863)
I don't believe in total freedom for the artist. Left on his own, free to do anything he likes, the artist ends up doing nothing at all. If there's one thing that's dangerous for an artist, it's precisely20 this question of total freedom, waiting for inspiration and all the rest of it.
Federico Fellini (1920 - 1993)
Art is making something out of nothing and selling it.
Frank Zappa (1940 - 1993)
I paint my own reality. The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration.
Frida Kahlo (1907 - 1954)
Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere.
G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936)
1、utterly ['ʌtəli]
adv.完全地，绝对地
参考例句：
Utterly devoted to the people,he gave his life in saving his patients.他忠于人民，把毕生精力用于挽救患者的生命。
I was utterly ravished by the way she smiled.她的微笑使我完全陶醉了。
2、 imposing [im'pəuziŋ]
adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的
参考例句：
The fortress is an imposing building.这座城堡是一座宏伟的建筑。
He has lost his imposing appearance.他已失去堂堂仪表。
3、aesthetic [i:s'θetik]
adj.美学的，审美的，有美感
参考例句：
My aesthetic standards are quite different from his.我的审美标准与他的大不相同。
The professor advanced a new aesthetic theory.那位教授提出了新的美学理论。
