Since the model he so faithfully copies is not going to be hung up next to the picture... it is of no interest whether it is an accurate copy of the model.
Lucian FreudRead
What do I ask of a painting? I ask it to astonish, disturb, seduce, convince.
Interpretation
The quote expresses the multifaceted impact a painting should have on its viewer.
Lucian Freud emphasizes that a painting should evoke a spectrum of emotions and reactions from its audience. It's not merely about aesthetic beauty; rather, it's about provoking thought and stirring feelings, engaging the viewer on a deeper level.
In practice
This quote could be shared in an art critique to highlight the expectations of art.
Since the model he so faithfully copies is not going to be hung up next to the picture... it is of no interest whether it is an accurate copy of the model.
When I look at a body it gives me choice of what to put in a painting, what will suit me and what won't. There is a distinction between fact and truth. Truth has an element of revelation about it. If something is true, it does more than strike one as merely being so.
It is the only point of getting up every morning: to paint, to make something good, to make something even better than before, not to give up, to compete, to be ambitious.
The character of the artist doesn't enter into the nature of the art
I paint people, not because of what they are like, not exactly in spite of what they are like, but how they happen to be.
I could never put anything into a picture that wasn't actually there in front of me. That would be a pointless lie, a mere bit of artfulness.
When I was a bad writer, I would consciously imitate other NPR writers who I thought were wonderful. I suppose that everyone's artistic practice is different. But I collaborate and sometimes don't agree at all with my collaborators' opinions. It forces you to understand why you don't agree with something: what's the fight you're picking.
Recounting the strange is like telling one's dreams: one can communicate the events of a dream, but not the emotional content, the way that a dream can colour one's entire day.
Novel-writing is, for the novelist, a game of let's pretend.
Let the world burn through you. Throw the prism light, white hot, on paper.
Music has charms to sooth a savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.
And it was the idea that you can do a play - like a Shakespeare play, or any well-written play, Arthur Miller, whatever - and say things you could never imagine saying, never imagine thinking in your own life.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.