I don't paint to live, I live to paint.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the deep passion an artist has for their craft, indicating that their existence revolves around creating art.
Willem De Kooning's statement illustrates the profound connection between an artist and their work. It suggests that for true artists, the act of creating is not merely a means of survival but a vital aspect of their identity and essence. This compulsion to create speaks to the dedication and devotion that artists have towards their art, highlighting how it infuses their lives with purpose and meaning.
In practice
An artist might use this quote during an art exhibition to convey their dedication to their craft.
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.
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.
My interest in desperation lies only in that sometimes I find myself having become desperate. Very seldom do I start out that way. I can see of course that, in the abstract, thinking and all activity is rather desperate.
Music is a gift and a burden I've had since I can remember who I was.
Since the printing press came into being, poetry has ceased to be the delight of the whole community of man; it has become the amusement and delight of the few.
One does not read a poem by Gwendolyn Brooks with hopes that it will grant him a career in engineering; he does so because poetry helps him see something in the world that he might not have seen before.
Any artist, when he goes in to record, should have the feeling that any song he records can be a hit. This may sound egotistical, but it makes sense.
Colours shone with exceptional clarity in the rain. The ground was a deep black, the pine branches a brilliant green, the people wrapped in yellow looking like special spirits that were allowed to wander over the earth on rainy mornings only.
I am interested in the physicality of light itself.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.