I had to experience how someone beside me suddenly falls over and is dead and the bullet has hit him squarely. I had to experience that quite directly. I wanted it. I'm therefore not a pacifist at all - or am I?
Otto DixRead
Everybody thinks they know what art should be. But very few of them have the sense that is necessary to experience painting, that is the sense of sight, that sees colors and forms as living reality in the picture.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Art is subjective, and true appreciation requires a deeper understanding beyond conventional views.
In this quote, Otto Dix emphasizes that while many people have opinions about what art is or should be, very few possess the genuine sensory perception to fully experience and appreciate art. He suggests that the ability to see and interpret the colors, forms, and emotions in a painting is essential in grasping its true essence, which transcends mere personal or societal definitions of art.
Themes
ArtPerceptionExperienceAppreciationPainting
In practice
Example use cases
In a conversation about modern art, this quote can highlight the importance of personal interpretation.
More from Otto Dix
All quotes →Similar quotes
I treat auditions like I treated my first dates. It's an opportunity to get to know a stranger and to learn from each other.
Hugh JackmanRead
Good poets borrow, great poets steal
T. S. EliotRead
Art is the triumph over chaos.
John CheeverRead
To feel beauty is a better thing than to understand how we come to feel it. To have imagination and taste, to love the best, to be carried by the contemplation of nature to a vivid faith in the ideal, all this is more, a great deal more, than any science can hope to be.
George SantayanaRead
Create your own visual style... let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others.
Orson WellesRead
Life is a shitstorm, in which art is our only umbrella." (spoken by character in a novel by Mario Vargas Llosa)
Mario Vargas LlosaRead