I have a fairly unwieldy set of concerns that go into determining what I do in the paintings, such as the history of the decorative, patterns of cult…

- Philip Taaffe

Design is meant to grab you and win you over. It is meant to function in a way so as to make life easier. Obviously painting has to do with something…

- Philip Taaffe

There is a tendency in my work toward minimalism, in terms of stripping away the unnecessary. I am seeking a tightly ordered gestalt, usually. I've a…

- Philip Taaffe

I'm not so interested in the effort that it takes to have a self-promotional outlook. I believe in being quiet and making my work and just trying to …

- Philip Taaffe

I'm very tolerant of other art and other artists. But what I truly appreciate, what I truly admire in contemporary art, is work that takes on more th…

- Philip Taaffe

I don't understand why a Mark Rothko painting - as much as I love Mark Rothko - has to cost $73 million. I mean, I think $14 million is a pretty reas…

- Philip Taaffe

Art exists through the act of making. It has to somehow be made manifest to another person. It has to do with what one wants to see manifest, what on…

- Philip Taaffe

I don't want to fetishize the past. I want there to be a natural sequence coming out of a synthesis of the ideas and information that I gather togeth…

- Philip Taaffe

I'm not so interested in this series of ruptures, where minimalism took over pop art, and then neo-expressionism was a triumph over that. I'm not int…

- Philip Taaffe