Instead of art I have taught philosophy. Though technique for me is a big word, I never have taught how to paint. All my doing was to make people to see.
Interpretation
Josef Albers emphasizes the importance of teaching people to perceive and understand art rather than focusing solely on technical skills.
In this quote, Josef Albers reflects on his approach to teaching, where he prioritizes philosophy over technical skills in art. He believes that the essence of art lies in the perception and understanding of it, rather than just the ability to create it through technique. Albers suggests that true appreciation and engagement with art come from seeing and thinking about it deeply rather than merely executing the act of painting.
In practice
This quote can be used in an art class to inspire students to focus on their interpretation of art.
Simultaneous contrast is not just a curious optical phenomenon – it is the very heart of painting. Repeated experiments with adjacent colors will show that any ground subtracts its own hue from the colors which it carries and therefore influences.
When we are honest - that's my saying - if we are honest then we will reveal ourselves. But we do not have to make an effort to be individualistic, different from others.
Ah, the creative process is the same secret in science as it is in art. They are all the same absolutely.
Traditionally art is to create and not to revive. To revive: leave that to the historians, who are looking backward.
In order to use color effectively it is necessary to recognize that color deceives continually.
The aim of our studies is to prove that color is the most relative means of artistic expression, that we never really perceive what color is physically.
My writing is inspired by where I come from, where I am today, and where I hope to go some day.
Fiction is not imagination. It is what anticipates imagination by giving it the form of reality. This is quite opposite to our own natural tendency which is to anticipate reality by imagining it, or to flee from it by idealizing it. That is why we [Europeans] shall never inhabit true fiction; we are condemned to the imaginary and nostalgia for the future.
Before I was born my mother was in great agony of spirit and in a tragic situation. She could take no food except iced oysters and champagne. If people ask me when I began to dance, I reply 'In my mother's womb, probably as a result of the oysters and Champagne.'
In nature, light creates the color. In the picture, color creates the light.
My dream concept is that I have a camera and I am trying to photograph what is essentially invisible. And every once in a while I get a glimpse of her and I grab that picture.
I think poetry is as old as language, and both come out of the same thing - an effort to try to express something that is inexpressible.
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