QuoteProject
What concerns me when I work, is not whether the picture is a landscape, or whether it's pastoral, or whether somebody will see a sunset in it. What concerns me is - did I make a beautiful picture?
Helen Frankenthaler
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote emphasizes the importance of beauty in art rather than its categorization or subject matter.

Helen Frankenthaler's quote reflects the essence of artistic creation, focusing on the pursuit of beauty rather than the conventional classifications of art such as landscapes or pastoral scenes. It suggests that the true value of a piece lies in its aesthetic appeal and the emotional response it evokes, rather than how it is categorized or perceived by others.

Themes

ArtBeautyCreationExpressionAesthetic

In practice

Example use cases

In an art class, to inspire students to focus on the beauty of their own creations.

More from Helen Frankenthaler

Every canvas is a journey all its own.
Helen FrankenthalerRead
There are many accidents that are nothing but accidents-and forget it. But there are some that were brought about only because you are the person you are... you have the wherewithal, intelligence, and energy to recognize it and do something with it.
Helen FrankenthalerRead
I don't start with a color order, but find the colors as I go.
Helen FrankenthalerRead
We would sift through every inch of what it was that worked, or if it didn't, and wonder what was effective in it, in terms of paint, the subject matter, the size, the drawing.
Helen FrankenthalerRead
Art has a will of its own. It has nothing to do with the taste of the moment or what's expected of you. That's a formula for dead art, or fashionable art.
Helen FrankenthalerRead
I don't resent being a female painter. I don't exploit it. I paint.
Helen FrankenthalerRead

Similar quotes

I have not practiced how to be a singer without an instrument.
Paul MccartneyRead
The evening light was like honey in the trees When you left me and walked to the end of the street Where the sunset abruptly ended. The wedding-cake drawbridge lowered itself To the fragile forget-me-not flower. You climbed aboard. Burnt horizons suddenly paved with golden stones, Dreams I had, including suicide, Puff out the hot-air balloon now. It is bursting, it is about to burst
John AshberyRead
I'm not in any rush. I'm not somebody who, if I write a song, I get it out. That's not something I've ever really quite done.
Bruce SpringsteenRead
The writing process for a short story feels more like field geology, where you keep turning the thing over and over, noting its qualities in detail, hammering at it, putting it near flame, pouring different acids on it, and then finally you figure out what it is, or you just give up and mount it on a ring and have an awkward chunky piece of jewelry that seems weirdly dominating but that you for some reason like. I could be wrong about field geology here.
Rivka GalchenRead
For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.
Vincent Van GoghRead
That's the clarinet I used to use... but it's just a piece of wood, you know, with holes in it and they put these clumsy keys on it and you're supposed to try to take that and manipulate it with throat muscles and chops... and try to make something happen that never happened before. And when you do, you never forget it. It beats sex, it beats anything.
Artie ShawRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.