A work of art may be understood as a conductor from the artist's mind to the viewer's. But it may never reach the viewer, or it may never leave the artist's mind.
Sol LewittRead
Buying books was a way anyone could acquire a work of art for very little.
Interpretation
Books can be seen as affordable art pieces that anyone can own.
In this quote, Sol Lewitt emphasizes the idea that purchasing books is not just a transaction but a means to own a piece of art. He suggests that literature should be accessible to all, allowing anyone to enrich their lives through the beauty and creativity contained within the pages of a book, making art a part of everyday life.
In practice
In a speech about promoting literacy, one might quote Sol Lewitt to highlight the value of books as art.
A work of art may be understood as a conductor from the artist's mind to the viewer's. But it may never reach the viewer, or it may never leave the artist's mind.
Once it is out of his hand the artist has no control over the way a viewer will perceive the work. Different people will understand the same thing in a different way.
The system is the work of art; the visual work of art is the proof of the System. The visual aspect can't be understood without understanding the system. It isn't what it looks like but what it is that is of basic importance.
Artists are mystics rather than rationalists. They leap to conclusions that logic cannot reach.
Unless you're involved with thinking about what you're doing, you end up doing the same thing over and over, and that becomes tedious and, in the end, defeating.
Every generation renews itself in its own way; there's always a reaction against whatever is standard.
I always say it takes three weeks to know a character and three months to own it. And I think that's probably true of every theater artist. If you really want to see a performance of the show, wait three months.
Photographs are a way of imprisoning reality, understood as recalcitrant, inaccessible; of making it stand still. One can't possess reality, one can possess (and be possessed by) images β as, according to Proust, most ambitious of voluntary prisoners, one can't possess the present but one can possessthe past.
I'm not such a fan of imagination. If you're alive to details, they oftentimes suggest a richer or deeper imaginative line than you would have imagined.
When you say 'design,' everybody thinks of magazine pages. So it's an emotive word. Everybody thinks it's how something looks, whereas for me, design is pretty much everything.
Damn the age. I'll write for antiquity.
Poetry is of so subtle a spirit, that in the pouring out of one language into another it will evaporate.
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