Purpose of art

Explore 21 quotes about Purpose of art

Art is a human activity having for its purpose the transmission to others of the highest and best feelings to which men have risen.

Leo Tolstoy

What Is Art?

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Read What Is Art? at Project Gutenberg

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Topic

Purpose of art

Author

Leo Tolstoy

Source

What Is Art?

Medium

Essay

Statement Type

Definition

Language

Russian

Time

1897 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Tolstoy, Leo. What is Art? London: The Brotherhood Publishing Company, 1898.

Current Citation

Tolstoy, Leo. What Is Art? Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. Penguin Classics, 1996.

Painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war for attack and defense against the enemy.

Pablo Picasso

More information about this quote

Topic

Painting Purpose of art Art

Speaker

Pablo Picasso

Medium

Interview

Language

French

Time

1945 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Picasso, Pablo. "Picasso n'est pas officier dans l'armee Francaise." Interviewed by Simon Tery. Les Lettres Francaise, 24 Mar. 1945.

If you could say it in words, there'd be no reason to paint.

Edward Hopper

More information about this quote

Topic

Purpose of art Limits of language

Author

Edward Hopper

Source

Time

Medium

Magazine

Language

English

Time

1956 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hopper, Edward. "Art: The Silent Witness.” Time Magazine, 24 Dec. 1956.

Art is not, as the metaphysicians say, the manifestation of some mysterious idea of beauty or God; it is not, as the aesthetical physiologists say, a game in which man lets off his excess of stored-up energy; it is not the expression of man's emotions by external signs; it is not the production of pleasing objects; and, above all, it is not pleasure; but it is a means of union among men, joining them together in the same feelings, and indispensable for the life and progress toward well-being of individuals and of humanity.

Leo Tolstoy

Read What Is Art? at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of art Purpose of art Art

Author

Leo Tolstoy

Source

What Is Art?

Medium

Essay

Language

Russian

Time

1897 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Tolstoy, Leo. What is Art? London: The Brotherhood Publishing Company, 1898.

Current Citation

Tolstoy, Leo. What Is Art? Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. Penguin Classics, 1996.

The purpose of art is the lifelong construction of a state of wonder.

Glenn Gould

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Topic

Purpose of art Art

Speaker

Glenn Gould

Source

1982 York University commencement address

Medium

Speech

Genre

Commencement address

Language

English

Time

1982 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Gould, Glenn. Commencement address. Commencement ceremony. 6 Nov. 1982, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

I am for an art that tells you the time of day, or where such and such a street is. I am for an art that helps old ladies across the street.

Claes Oldenburg

More information about this quote

Topic

Purpose of art Art

Author

Claes Oldenburg

Language

English

Time

1961 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Oldenburg, Claes. Statement for exhibition catalogue called Environments, Situations, Spaces. c. 1961, Martha Jackson Gallery, New York City, NY, USA.

The first virtue of a painting is to be a feast for the eyes.

Eugène Delacroix

More information about this quote

Topic

Purpose of art Painting Art

Author

Eugène Delacroix

Medium

Personal journal

Language

French

Time

1863 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Delacroix, Eugene. Journal entry. 22 June 1863.

Current Citation

Delacroix, Eugène. The Journal of Eugène Delacroix: A Selection, translated by Lucy Norton, edited by Hubert Wellington. Phaidon, 1995.

Art has always been the raft on to which we climb to save our sanity.

Dorothea Tanning

Quoted in Salon

More information about this quote

Topic

Art as therapy Purpose of art Art

Speaker

Dorothea Tanning

Source

Salon

Medium

Interview

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

2002 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Tanning, Dorothea. Interviewed by John Glassing. Salon, 11 Feb. 2002, https://www.salon.com/2002/02/11/tanning/.

Art is meant to disturb, science reassures.

Georges Braque

More information about this quote

Topic

Art and science Purpose of art Art Science

Author

Georges Braque

Source

Journals of Georges Braque

Medium

Personal journal

Language

French

Time

1952 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Braque, Georges. Le Jour et la nuit: Cahiers 1917-52 [Day and Night. Notebooks 1917-1952]. Gallimard, 1952.

Current Citation

Braque, Georges. Illustrated Notebooks: 1917-1955, translated by Stanley Appelbaum. Dover Publications, 1971.

Human life is a sad show, undoubtedly: ugly, heavy and complex. Art has no other end, for people of feeling, than to conjure away the burden and bitterness.

Gustave Flaubert

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Topic

Purpose of art Art Life The human condition

Author

Gustave Flaubert

Source

Letters of Gustave Flaubert

Medium

Letter

Language

French

Time

1864 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Flaubert, Gustave. Letter to Amelie Bosquet. July 1864.

Though the great artists of the past could not change the course of history, it is only through their work that we are able to break bread with the dead, and without communion with the dead a fully human life is impossible.

W.H. Auden

More information about this quote

Topic

Purpose of art Artists

Speaker

W.H. Auden

Source

Words and the Word

Medium

Lecture

Language

English

Time

1967 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Auden, W. H. "Words and the Word." Secondary Worlds. Random House, 1968. Originally a lecture given on Oct. 1967, University of Kent, Canterbury, England, UK.

To wake the soul by tender strokes of art,
To raise the genius, and to mend the heart;
To make mankind, in conscious virtue bold,
Live o'er each scene, and be what they behold:
For this the tragic Muse first trod the stage.

Alexander Pope

More information about this quote

Topic

Purpose of art Power of art Art

Author

Alexander Pope

Source

Prologue to Addison's Tragedy of Cato Cato

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1713 1710s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Pope, Alexander. "Prologue to Addison's Cato." Cato, written by Joseph Addison. 14 Apr. 1713, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, UK, I. 1-5.

Current Citation

Pope, Alexander. "Prologue to Mr. Addison's Tragedy of Cato." Pope: Poems (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets Series). Everyman's Library, 2018, I. 1-5.

To find a form that accommodates the mess, that is the task of the artist now.

Samuel Beckett

More information about this quote

Topic

Purpose of art Art

Author

Samuel Beckett

Source

Proust

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1930 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Beckett, Samuel. Proust. Chatto and Windus, 1930.

The great design of art is to restore the decays that happened to human nature by the fall, by restoring order.

John Dennis

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Topic

Purpose of art Art

Author

John Dennis

Source

The Grounds of Criticism in Poetry

Medium

Treatise

Language

English

Time

1704 1700s 18th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Dennis, John. The Grounds of Criticism in Poetry. London: Geo. Strahan and Bernard Lintott, 1704, ch. 2.

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.

Thomas Merton

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Topic

Purpose of art Art

Author

Thomas Merton

Source

No Man Is an Island

Genre

Religious literature

Language

English

Time

1955 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Merton, Thomas. No Man Is an Island. Clonmore & Reynolds/Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1955.

We must have religion for religion's sake, morality for morality's sake, as with art for art's sake... The beautiful cannot be the way to what is useful, or to what is good, or to what is holy; it leads only to itself.

Victor Cousin

More information about this quote

Topic

Purpose of art Art

Speaker

Victor Cousin

Source

On the True, the Beautiful and the Good

Medium

Lecture

Language

French

Time

1818 1810s 19th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Cousin, Victor. "Du Vrai, du beau, et du bien." Cours de philosophie. École Normale Supérieure, 1818, Paris, France.

Throughout the ages, man has conquered tragedy with his ability to create works of art.

Will Barnet

More information about this quote

Topic

Art as therapy Purpose of art Art

Speaker

Will Barnet

Source

22 Famous Painters and Illustrators Tell How They Work

Medium

Interview

Language

English

Time

1964 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Barnet, Will. "Interview with Mary Anne Guitar." 22 Famous Painters and Illustrators Tell How They Work. David McKay, 1964, p. 11.

I want anyone tired, worn down, driven to the limits of endurance, to find calm and repose in my painting.

Henri Matisse

More information about this quote

Topic

Purpose of art Art

Author

Henri Matisse

Language

French

Time

1913 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Matisse, Henri. Quoted in "Henri Matisse." Les Cahiers d'aujourd'hui, written by Marcel Sembat. Paris: George Besson, 1913, no. 4.

Current Citation

Matisse, Henri. Quoted in Matisse the Master, written by Hilary Spurling. Vol. 2, Penguin Classics, 2006.

I want to make work so people can be moved by a sense of the possible.

Zhang Huan

More information about this quote

Topic

Purpose of art Artist and audience Art

Speaker

Zhang Huan

Medium

Interview

Language

Chinese

Time

2000 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Huan, Zheng. "Interview with Zhang Huan." Interviewed by Roselee Goldberg. Pilgrimage to Santiago, 2000.

When artists create pictures and thinkers search for laws and formulate thoughts, it is in order to salvage something from the great dance of death, to make something that lasts longer than we do.

Hermann Hesse

Narcissus and Goldmund

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Topic

Purpose of art Art

Author

Hermann Hesse

Source

Narcissus and Goldmund

Medium

Novel

Language

German

Time

1930 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hesse, Herman. Narziß und Goldmund [Narcissus and Goldmund]. Fischer Verlag, 1930.

Current Citation

Hesse, Herman. Narcissus and Goldmund, translated by Ursule Molinaro. Bantam, 1984.