You like it, that's all, whether it's a landscape or abstract. You like it. It hits you. You don't have to read it. The work of art-sculpture or painting-forces your eye.
The dissolution of the pictorial into sheer texture, into apparently sheer sensation, into an accumulation of repetitions, seems to speak for and answer something profound in contemporary sensibility.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the transition in art from traditional representation to an emphasis on texture and sensation, resonating with modern sensibilities.
Clement Greenberg's quote explores the evolution of visual art, suggesting that contemporary practices have moved away from representing objects and images towards a focus on the material qualities of the artwork itself. This shift highlights a deeper understanding and appreciation for the sensations and experiences that texture can evoke, indicating a response to the complexities of modern life and sensibility.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on modern art, this quote can be used to illustrate the shift towards abstract expressionism.
More from Clement Greenberg
All quotes βSimilar quotes
In every culture, in every language, there is expressive play, expressive word play; there's language use to different purposes that we would call poetry.
Music helps you find the truths you must bring into the rest of your life.
By attracting attention to yourself, you distract people from the movie. Ideally, you like a movie to speak for itself. You don't describe a song before you sing it or tell about a painting before you show it. You don't reveal the recipe before you serve the dish. You taste it.
I'd have been a filmmaker or a cartoonist or something else which extended from the visual arts into the making of narratives if I hadn't been able to shift into fiction.
I grew as an actor just by watching Kamal Haasan acting. I had the good fortune of being able to observe Kamal Haasan from close quarters.
No man with a conscience can just bat out illustrations. He's got to put all his talent and feeling into them!