Carolina QuotesGreat art is never extreme. Criticism moves in a false direction, as does art, when it aspires to be a social science.. .In this world modern artists form a kind of spiritual underground.
Robert Motherwell Connected to the Carolinas
Source
Motherwell's writing in 1944; as cited in 'Robert Motherwell, American Painter and Printmaker', on 'Artstory'
- year
- 1944
Cite this record
“Great art is never extreme. Criticism moves in a false direc…” Robert Motherwell. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-0F2CE29892. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/0f2ce29892
More from Robert Motherwell
Feeling must have a medium in order to function at all; in the same way, thought must have symbols. It is the medium, or the specific configuration of the medium that we call a work of art that brings feeling into being, just as do responses tot the objects of the external world.. .The medium of painting is such changing and ordering on an ideal plane, ideal in that the medium is more tractable, subtle, and capable of emphasis (abstraction is a kind of emphasis) than everyday life.
All my life I've been working on the work - every canvas a sentence or paragraph of it. Each picture is only an approximation of what you want. That's the beauty of being an artist; you can never make the absolute statement, but the desire to do so as an approximation keeps you going.
[the process of painting..] ..is conceived of as an adventure, without preconceived ideas on the part of persons of intelligence, sensibility, and passion. Fidelity to what occurs between oneself and the canvas, no matter how unexpected, becomes central.. ..the major decisions in the process of painting are on the grounds of truth, not taste...