Sickness, insanity and death were the angels that surrounded my cradle and they have followed me throughout my life.
Edvard MunchRead
Painting picture by picture, I followed the impressions my eye took in at heightened moments. I painted only memories, adding nothing, no details that I did not see. Hence the simplicity of the paintings, their emptiness.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes painting as a process that captures genuine memories and perceptions without unnecessary embellishments.
Edvard Munch reflects on his artistic philosophy, where each painting is a direct representation of his memories and impressions, void of added details or complexities. This approach highlights the purity and simplicity of his work, suggesting that true art stems from authentic experiences rather than overthinking or overcomplicating the subject.
In practice
This quote can be used in an art class to inspire students to focus on their own experiences when creating art.
Sickness, insanity and death were the angels that surrounded my cradle and they have followed me throughout my life.
I don’t believe in an art that is not born out of man’s need to open his heart.
Through my art I have tried to explain my life and its meaning. I have also intended to help others to clarify their lives.
My fear of life is necessary to me, as is my illness. Without anxiety and illness, I am a ship without a rudder. My art is grounded in reflections over being different from others. My sufferings are part of my self and my art. They are indistinguishable from me, and their destruction would destroy my art. I want to keep those sufferings
At different moments you see with different eyes. You see differently in the morning than you do in the evening. In addition, how you see is also dependent on your emotional state. Because of this, a motif can be seen in many different ways, and this is what makes art interesting.
From my rotting body, flowers shall grow and I am in them and that is eternity.
The true artist does not create art as an end in itself; he creates art for human beings. Humanity is the goal.
I sometimes have a horrible fear of turning up a canvas of mine. I'm always afraid of finding a monster in place of the precious jewels I thought I had put there!
Older people say, 'Oh I loved you in 'Sense and Sensibility,'' and that's the only film they want to talk about. Equally, there are people who only want to talk about 'Galaxy Quest.' And there's a whole bunch of teenagers who only want to talk about 'Dogma.'
For me, writing stories is one way of feeling connected to the universe and God.
Film is important; it can be more than reportage or a novel - it creates images people have never seen before, never imagined they'd see, maybe because they needed someone else to imagine them.
If you can see yourself as an artist, and you can see that your life is your own creation, then why not create the most beautiful story for yourself?
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