Flesh was the reason why oil painting was invented
Interpretation
The quote highlights the importance of human form in the evolution of oil painting.
Willem De Kooning's statement underscores the significance of the human body as a central theme in art, particularly oil painting. It suggests that the physicality and complexity of flesh inspired artists to develop and refine techniques in this medium, making the representation of the human figure a driving force behind artistic innovation and expression.
In practice
This quote could be used in an art class to discuss the evolution of painting techniques.
I paint the way I do because I can keep on putting more and more things in - like drama, pain, anger, love, a figure, a horse, my ideas of space. It doesn't matter if it differs from mine, as long as it comes from the painting, which has its own integrity and intensity.
The attitude that nature is chaotic and that the artist puts order into it is a very absurd point of view, I think. All that we can hope for is to put some order into ourselves.
I don't paint to live, I live to paint.
Spiritually I am wherever my spirit allows me to be, and that is not necessarily in the future... Art never seems to make me peaceful or pure.
Im not someone whos ever said anything definitive about his work. In my life also I have very little fixed form. I can change overnight.
Art should not have to be a certain way.
Look, Hollywood's a mecca, but it's not the final answer. You pick up a camera anyplace in the world, you can make a movie.
I try to stick with things that I can sing with honesty.
One of the glories and terrors of working in public is that you do see if your output means anything to anyone.
Well, I've been recording myself on a computer since I was about 13 or 14. So it's completely entwined with my creative process. Essentially, it allows you to make music that's better and smarter than you are, by using your ears to lead the way.
Thereβs nothing as glamorous to me as a record store.
Say it, no ideas but in things - nothing but the blank faces of the houses and cylindrical trees bent, forked by preconception and accident - split, furrowed, creased, mottled, stained - secret - into the body of the light!
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