When you stop doing something, it doesn't mean you are rejecting the previous work. That's the mistake; it's not rejecting it, it's saying, 'I have exploited it enough now and I wish to take a look at another corner.'
David HockneyRead
Cubism was an attack on the perspective that had been known and used for 500 years. It was the first big, big change. It confused people: they said, 'Things don't look like that!'
Interpretation
Cubism challenged traditional artistic perspectives and norms.
David Hockney's quote highlights the revolutionary impact of Cubism on the art world, disrupting long-established methods of perspective that dominated for centuries. It emphasizes the confusion and resistance faced by viewers who were accustomed to representational art, illustrating how innovation can provoke discomfort yet pave the way for new artistic expressions.
In practice
Referencing this quote in an art history lecture about the evolution of modern art.
When you stop doing something, it doesn't mean you are rejecting the previous work. That's the mistake; it's not rejecting it, it's saying, 'I have exploited it enough now and I wish to take a look at another corner.'
I'm interested in all kinds of pictures, however they are made, with cameras, with paint brushes, with computers, with anything.
I've always wanted to be able to paint the dawn.
My only worry is the painting I'm doing. Nothing else.
In fact, most artists want to make things a bit more difficult for themselves as they go along, to challenge themselves.
I can get excitement watching rain on a puddle. And then I paint it. Now, I admit, there are not too many people who would find that exciting. But I would. And I want life thrilling and rich. And it is. I make sure it is.
There are only a few notes. Just variations on a theme.
A great building must begin with the unmeasurable, must go through measurable means when it is being designed and in the end must be unmeasurable.
The genuine music lover may accept the carnal husk of opera to get at the kernel of actual music within, but that is no sign that he approves the carnal husk or enjoys gnawing through it.
A jazz musician is a combination orator, dialectician, mathematician, athlete, entertainer, poet, singer, dancer, diplomat, educator, student, comedian, artist, seducer, public masturbator, and general all-round good fellow.
But poets were not considered dangerous and they were advised to exercise self-censorship. At most, poets were requested not to write at all. I took advantage of this negative liberty.
The great thing about using the past is that it gives you the most colossal freedom to invent. The research is necessary, of course, but no one writes a novel to dramatically illustrate what everybody already knows.
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