13 March, 2014

I...don't like it when people write about art





Everyone is wise until he speaks. Irish Proverb.

"I refuse to confide and don't like it when people write about art,"  Balthus.

"Words may show a man's wit, but actions his meaning, " Benjamin Franklin.

"I had placed my stick on the table, as I do every evening. It had been specially made to suit my height, to enable me to walk without too much difficulty. As I was standing up, a customer called to me: 'Monsieur, don't forget your pencil.' It was very unkind, but most funny," 
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

"But often it's doubtful whether the logic of the work itself and the words used to describe it really have anything to do with each other," 
 Thom Mayne.

"Never trust the artist. Trust the tale,"  D.H. Lawrence.

"Stealing someone else's words frequently spares the embarrassment of eating your own," 
Peter Anderson.

"Hear the meaning within the word,"  William Shakespeare.

"Self expression shouldn't be the goal,"  
Wolf Kahn.

 
First published in 2010.

2 comments:

Katherine van Schoonhoven said...

How timely, Casey! I just updated my artist's statement, but before I did I read at least 100 statements by other artists. Not that any of them were BAD, but most of them had a tone of something I found distasteful. It seems to me that the work of the artist is far more telling than the words of the artist. And (most times) the words get in the way.

Casey Klahn said...

Well said, Katherine.

Abstract Expressionism, Art Criticism, Artists, Colorist Art, Drawing, History, Impressionism, Modern Art, Painting, Pastel, Post Impressionism