Be truthful. Nature only sides with truth.
Adolf LoosRead
The house has to please everyone, contrary to the work of art which does not. The work is a private matter for the artist. The house is not.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote distinguishes between the communal nature of architecture and the personal nature of art, suggesting that a house must accommodate public taste while a work of art is an expression of the artist's individuality.
Adolf Loos emphasizes the difference between architecture and art by highlighting that a house must cater to the preferences and comfort of its inhabitants or the public, whereas a piece of art is a personal expression that reflects the unique vision and feelings of the artist. This contrast suggests that while architecture is a functional space meant for communal use, art serves a more subjective and individualistic purpose.
Themes
ArchitectureArtPublic TasteIndividualityDesign
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about architectural designs that balance aesthetics and functionality, this quote could illustrate the challenges architects face.
More from Adolf Loos
All quotes βThe house has to serve comfort. The work of art is revolutionary; the house is conservative.
Adolf LoosRead
Does it follow that the house has nothing in common with art and is architecture not to be included in the arts? Only a very small part of architecture belongs to art: the tomb and the monument. Everything else that fulfils a function is to be excluded from the domain of art.
Adolf LoosRead
Architecture arouses sentiments in man. The architect's task therefore, is to make those sentiments more precise.
Adolf LoosRead
Similar quotes
The reason some portraits don't look true to life is that some people make no effort to resemble their pictures.
Salvador DaliRead
Writers write these male stereotypes, and it makes it ten times more interesting if a woman says the lines.
Sigourney WeaverRead
The ostensible subject of my photographs may be motion, but the subtext is time. A dancer's movements illustrate the passage of time, giving it a substance, materiality, and space. In my photographs, time is stopped, a split second becomes an eternity, and an ephemeral moment is solid as sculpture.
Lois GreenfieldRead
Poetry and prayer are very similar.
Carol Ann DuffyRead
Painting picture by picture, I followed the impressions my eye took in at heightened moments. I painted only memories, adding nothing, no details that I did not see. Hence the simplicity of the paintings, their emptiness.
Edvard MunchRead
In poetry you can express almost inexpressible feelings. You can express the pain of loss, you can express love. People always turn to poetry when someone they love dies, when they fall in love.
Erica JongRead