Very quickly a painting is turned into a facsimile of itself when one becomes so familiar with with it that one recognizes it without looking at it.
Robert RauschenbergRead
Anything you do will be an abuse of somebody else's aesthetics. I think you're born an artist or not. I couldn't have learned it. And I hope I never do because knowing more only encourages your limitations.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects the idea that art is subjective and that true creativity is innate rather than learned.
Robert Rauschenberg's quote suggests that artistic expression is inherently personal and that any action taken in art will inevitably clash with someone else's aesthetic standards. He emphasizes that creativity is an inherent trait, suggesting that true artists are born, not made, and that seeking more knowledge about art might limit one’s creative potential. This perspective challenges conventional notions of art education and the ideal of perfecting craft through learning.
Themes
ArtCreativitySubjectivityExpressionInnate
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in an art class to initiate a discussion on the nature of creativity.
More from Robert Rauschenberg
All quotes →I never allowed myself the luxury of those brilliant, beautiful colors until I went to India and saw people walking around in them or dragging them in the mud. I realised they were not so artificial.
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I'm not so facile that I can accomplish or find out what I want to know or explore enough of the possibilities and a way of making a painting, say, in just one painting or two paintings.
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My art is about paying attention - about the extremely dangerous possibility that you might be art.
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The artist's job is to be a witness to his time in history.
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There was a whole language that I could never make function for myself in relationship to painting, and that was attitudes like tortured, struggle, pain.
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