Subjective artists are one-eyed, but objective artists are blind.
Georges RouaultRead
The conscience of an artist worthy of the name is like an incurable disease which causes him endless torment but occasionally fills him with silent joy.
Interpretation
An artist experiences constant internal struggle yet finds moments of profound happiness in their work.
Georges Rouault's quote suggests that a true artist is deeply affected by their conscience, leading to persistent inner turmoil regarding their art and its impact. This torment is part of the artist's journey; however, through this struggle, they also experience unparalleled joy and fulfillment from creating and expressing themselves, highlighting the duality of the artistic experience.
In practice
In a speech at an art exhibition, one might quote this to highlight the emotional depth of artists.
Subjective artists are one-eyed, but objective artists are blind.
The business of art is to reveal the relation between man and his environment.
I took Punk to be the detonation of some slow-fused projectile buried deep in society's flank a decade earlier, and I took it to be, somehow, a sign.
I must write. If I stop writing my life will have been an abject failure. It is that already to other people. But it could be an abject failure to myself. I will not have earned death.
Every time you do something, people are going to like it, people are going to hate it. You tend to make the movies on the basis you are making them for the people who are going to like them and not worrying too much about people who don't like them.
Poems come from ordinary experiences and objects, I think. Out of memory - a dress I lent my daughter on her way back to college; a newspaper photograph of war; a breast self-exam; the tooth fairy; Calvinist parents who beat up their children; a gesture of love; seeing oneself naked over age 50 in a set of bright hotel bathroom mirrors.
When you start with a portrait and search for a pure form, a clear volume, through successive eliminations, you arrive inevitably at the egg. Likewise, starting with the egg and following the same process in reverse, one finishes with the portrait.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.