Carolina QuotesEvery intelligent modern painter carries the whole culture of modern painting in his head.
Robert Motherwell Connected to the Carolinas
Source
Abstract Expressionism, David Anfam, Thames and Hudson Ltd London, 1990, p. 22
- year
- 1990
- locator
- p. 22
Cite this record
“Every intelligent modern painter carries the whole culture o…” Robert Motherwell. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-EAD6B1E8F5. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/ead6b1e8f5
More from Robert Motherwell
It would be very difficult to formulate a position in which there were no external relations. I cannot imagine any structure being defined as though it only has internal meaning.
The passions are a kind of thirst, inexorable and intense, for certain feelings or felt states. To find or invent 'objects' (which are, more strictly speaking, relational structures) whose felt quality satisfies the passions,- that for me is the activity of the artist, an activity which does not cease even in sleep. No wonder the artist is constantly placing and displacing, relating and rupturing relations; his task is to find a complex of qualities whose feeling is just right – veering toward the unknown and chaos, yet ordered and related in order to be apprehended.
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.