Sculpture is what you bump into when you back up to see a painting.
Barnett NewmanRead
What is the explanation of the seemingly insane drive of man to be painter and poet if it is not an act of defiance against mans fall and an assertion that he return to the Garden of Eden? For the artists are the first men.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that the urge to create art stems from a desire to reclaim a lost paradise and assert humanity's inherent creativity.
Barnett Newman highlights the fundamental drive of artists to create as a response to the human condition, where art serves as a form of defiance against the fall of man. He posits that through artistic expression, people aspire to return to an ideal state of innocence and purity, akin to the Garden of Eden, underscoring the essential role of artists in humanity's quest for meaning and renewal.
Themes
ArtCreationHumanityDefianceNature
In practice
Example use cases
A speaker at an art gala could use this quote to emphasize the importance of creativity in overcoming adversity.
More from Barnett Newman
All quotes →I hope that my painting has the impact of giving someone, as it did me, the feeling of his own totality, of his own separateness, of his own individuality.
Barnett NewmanRead
Any art worthy of its name should address 'life', 'man', 'nature', 'death' and 'tragedy'.
Barnett NewmanRead
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Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.
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Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.
Percy Bysshe ShelleyRead
The instrument is not the camera but the photographer.
Eve ArnoldRead