Sculpture is what you bump into when you back up to see a painting.
Barnett NewmanRead
I hope that my painting has the impact of giving someone, as it did me, the feeling of his own totality, of his own separateness, of his own individuality.
Interpretation
The quote expresses the hope that art can evoke a sense of individuality and personal completeness in viewers.
Barnett Newman emphasizes the transformative power of art, suggesting that a painting can instill in the viewer a profound awareness of their own unique identity and wholeness. This sentiment reflects the artist's desire for his work to resonate deeply, allowing individuals to connect with their sense of self and appreciate their separateness from others through the experience of art.
In practice
This quote can be used in an art exhibition to describe the artist's intent.
Sculpture is what you bump into when you back up to see a painting.
What is the explanation of the seemingly insane drive of man to be painter and poet if it is not an act of defiance against mans fall and an assertion that he return to the Garden of Eden? For the artists are the first men.
Any art worthy of its name should address 'life', 'man', 'nature', 'death' and 'tragedy'.
What makes me write is the rhythm of the world around me - the rhythms of the language, of course, but also of the land, the wind, the sky, other lives. Before the words comes the rhythm - that seems to me to be of the essence.
I believe in previous lives and the Museβand that books and music exist before they are written and that they are propelled into material being by their own imperative to be born, via the offices of those willing servants of discipline, imagination and inspiration whom we call artists.
For many artists and critics, beauty is a discredited idea. It denotes the saccharine sylvan scenes and cheesy melodies that appealed to Granny.
Designing is a matter of concentration. You go deep into what you want to do. It's about intensive research, really. The concentration is warm and intimate and like the fire inside the earth - intense but not distorted. You can go to a place, really feel it in your heart. It's actually a beautiful feeling.
When human beings have been fascinated by the contemplation of their own hearts, the more intricate biological pattern of the female has become a model for the artist, the mystic, and the saint. When mankind turns instead to what can be done, altered, built, invented, in the outer world, all natural properties of men, animals, or metals become handicaps to be altered rather than clues to be followed.
The appeal of the spectrally macabre is generally narrow because it demands from the reader a certain degree of imagination and a capacity for detachment from everyday life.
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