"Nonconformity is the basic pre-condition of art, as it is the pre-condition of good thinking and therefore of growth and greatness in a people."
"Even though many of his friends may feel that he is engaged upon a ridiculous project, he will pursue his vision, and he will probably ultimately realize it."
"From the moment at which a painter begins to strike figures of color upon a surface he must become acutely sensitive to the feel, the textures, the light, the relationships which arise before him."
"To me both subjective and objective are of paramount importance, another aspect of the problem of image and idea. The challenge is not to abolish both from art, but rather to unite them into a single impression, an image of which meaning is an inalienable part."
"The subconscious may greatly shape one's art; undoubtedly it does so. But the subconscious cannot create art. The very act of making a painting is an intending one; thus to intend and at the same time relinquish intention is a hopeless contradiction, albeit one that is exhibited on every hand."
"I began to question the degree of my belief in the views which I held. It became uncomfortably apparent to me that whatever one paints must be constantly re-examined, torn apart, if that seems to be indicated and reassembled i the light of new attitudes or new discovery."
"The questions, "Is it enough? Is that all?" began to plague me. Or, "This may be art, but is it my own art?" And then I began to realize that however professional my work might appear, even however original it might be, it still did not contain the central person which, for good or ill, was myself."
"An artist at work upon a painting must be two people, not one. He must function and act as two people all the time in several ways. On the one hand, the artist is the imaginer and the producer. But he is also the critic."
"The artist, as he describes him, is a medium through which all sorts of ineffable forces flows."
"In too many cases, unfortunately, the artist-teacher gradually develops into something else: the teacher who was formerly an artist. Too often the initial basis of appointment was fallacious. In the desire to find an artist who would "get along" with art historians, the department acquired a colleague who got along well enough but turned out to be neither much of an artist nor much of a teacher. Few artist are sufficiently dedicated to teaching to make a career of it. Over a long time, the danger is that the artist will produce less and less art while still preserving the attitude that his teaching is of secondary importance to it."
I could go on and on but I highly recommend this book to everyone. It's a great read.
