To end up with a canvas that is no less beautiful than the empty canvas is to begin with.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of the journey of creation as equal to the beauty of the initial idea or potential.
Robert Motherwell suggests that the process of creating art is as valuable as the untouched canvas. This implies that the creative journey, filled with experimentation and risk, can lead to a fulfilling outcome that reflects the beauty and potential that existed at the start. The development of an artwork is integral to appreciating its final form, as both the beginning and the end possess intrinsic beauty.
In practice
During an art class, I shared this quote to inspire students about the value of their creative process.
A main part of the struggle of art has been to make an art that is direct, simple, humane, unconnected with powers that be in their essence... To the degree that it is connected with the bourgeoisie via the marketplace and so on is not necessarily an artist's problem.
It's not that the creative act and the critical act are simultaneous. It's more like you blurt something out and then analyze it.
Art is an experience, not an object.
Art is much less important than life, but what a poor life without it.
It was never about having a Mohican haircut or wearing a ripped T-shirt. It was all about destruction, and the creative potential within that.
I was glamorous because of magicians like George Folsey, James Wong Howe, Oliver Marsh, Ray June, and all those other great cinematographers. I trusted those men and the other experts who made us beautiful. The rest of it I didn't give a damn about. I didn't fuss about my clothes, my lighting, or anything else, but, believe me, some of them did.
I am sometimes accused by my peers of printing my pictures too dark. All I can say is that it goes with the mood of melancholy that is induced by witnessing at close quarters such intractable situations of conflict and joylessness.
One of the grotesqueries of present-day American life is the amount of reasoning that goes into displaying the wisdom secreted in bad movies while proving that modern art is meaningless. They have put into practice the notion that a bad art work cleverly interpreted according to some obscure Method is more rewarding than a masterpiece wrapped in silence.
The publicity image steals her love of herself as she is, and offers it back to her for the price of the product.
A work of art is never finished. It is merely abandoned.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.