I never said the camera was truth. It is, however, a more accurate and more objective way of seeing.
Chuck CloseRead
You know, the way art history is taught, often there's nothing that tells you why the painting is great. The description of a lousy painting and the description of a great painting will very much sound the same.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Art education often fails to explain the intrinsic value of great works, making them seem similar to lesser pieces.
Chuck Close highlights a significant flaw in how art history is often taught, suggesting that the focus on mere description overlooks the deeper qualities that make certain works of art truly exceptional. This critique invites a reevaluation of art education to emphasize understanding and appreciation over simplistic comparison.
Themes
ArtEducationAppreciationHistoryPainting
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on art, a professor might use this quote to illustrate the need for a deeper analysis of artworks.
More from Chuck Close
All quotes →A photograph doesn't gain weight or lose weight, or change from being happy to being sad. It's frozen. You can use it, then recycle it.
Chuck CloseRead
The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who’ll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work.
Chuck CloseRead
Neurologically, I'm a quadriplegic, so virtually everything about my work has been driven by my learning disabilities, which are quite severe, and my lack of facial recognition, which I'm sure is what drove me to paint portraits in the first place.
Chuck CloseRead
Part of the joy of looking at art is getting in sync in some ways with the decision-making process that the artist used and the record that's embedded in the work.
Chuck CloseRead
Losing my father at a tender age was extremely important in being able to accept what happened to me later when I became a quadriplegic.
Chuck CloseRead
Similar quotes
Literature is not a picture of life, but is a separate experience with its own kind of flow and enhancement.
William StaffordRead
There are those photographers who have made a whole career doing commercial work but have never had a museum show, and then there are others who've only had museum shows but couldn't survive for five seconds in the real world of photography. But I've done absolutely everything.
Duane MichalsRead
All beauty comes from beautiful blood and a beautiful brain.
Walt WhitmanRead
As a viewer, the minute I start getting confused, I check out of the movie. Emotionally, I'm severed.
Quentin TarantinoRead
When you are writing literary writing, you are communicating something subtextual with emotions and poetry. The prose has to have a voice; it's not just typing. It takes a while to get that voice.
Joyce Carol OatesRead
I don't wait to be struck by lightning and I don't need certain slants of light in order to be able to write.
Toni MorrisonRead