The passion for art is, as for believers, very religious. It unites people, its message is of common humanity. Art has become my religion - others pray in church. It's a banality, but you don't possess art, it possesses you. It's like falling in love.
Interpretation
Art has a profound and unifying power, akin to a religious experience, that can deeply affect individuals.
Francois Pinault compares the passion for art to religious devotion, suggesting that art has the power to connect people through a shared understanding of humanity. He conveys the idea that art is not something that can be owned; instead, it possesses those who create or appreciate it, leading to a transformative experience much like falling in love.
In practice
In a gallery opening speech to emphasize the importance of art in bringing people together.
I couldn't play ball. I couldn't dance. Luckily, the girls didn't want me. Not much I could do about that. So I started to draw and to write. By the time I got to where I was attracting girls, I was already into work, and it was more important to me.
One of the great functions of art is to help us imagine what it is like to be not ourselves, what it is like to be someone or something else, what it is like to live in another skin, what it is like to live in another body, and in that sense to surpass ourselves, to go out beyond ourselves.
When I started to play with my fingernails, it was not just for volume. The most important thing was giving the guitar different colors in its voices.
It is not I that am drawing, it is this thing at the end of my hand.
Instead of noting down things I’m unlikely to forget, I will write a poem. Even if I have never written one before and even if I never do so again, I will at least know that I once had the courage to put my feelings into words.
One word is worth a thousand pictures. If it's the right word.
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