Walter Darby Bannard Quotes

Making art is like swimming underwater in a blindfold.

An ivory tower is a fine place as long as the door is open.

No high-minded painter of the last fifty years has been able to come to terms with his art without coming to terms with the problem of cubism.

What is sublime? / the artist said. / I haven't time / to be well read. / To be sub lime / I'll place, instead, / green citrus fruit / upon my head.

Most people find facts irritating. Facts interfere with their systems of denial.

Always let intuitive perception precede analysis.

Postmodernism is Modernism with Alzheimer's.

When you are painting a landscape, assume the painting is real and the landscape is an illusion.

Writing about art is only useful when it leads to the experience of art.

Postmodernism is silly and joyless at the same time.

A clear idea about the nature of quality in art will always result in inferior art tailored to it.

When anything can be art, art is not much of anything.

When anything goes, everything goes.

Stale artifacts of the past' are always 'active components of the present moment' when they are experienced in the present moment.

Most 'profound truths' are just timely ideas.

Live to paint, don't paint to live.

A critic without a good eye is a eunuch in a harem.

Science is a matter of adjusting language to explain material reality. Art is a matter of adjusting material reality to create a sense of life.

Postmodernism lives in the academy, where words abandon reality to serve ambition, and reputations rise on hot air.

Art flows more easily when you are not thinking about what 'should' be in it or how it 'should' be done. The Impressionists taught us to look and see, not assume.

Power is like money. Some know how to get it; few know how to use it.

When good ideas get put to bad use, it is the fault of the user, not the idea.

There is no best way to make art, but there are a lot of better ways.

Don't apologize, justify or rationalize bad art or bad writing. If you do, you are part of it.

Don't explain, enjoy.

Asking art to express ideas is like asking a Sumo wrestler to play charades.

The first duty of intelligence is to recognize the obvious.

When inspiration dies, imitation thrives.

Convention and restriction release inhibition and provoke the imagination.

The art consensus is not criteria, it is convenience.

Complete freedom debilitates art but reveals much about character.

Truth is not always hard to find; it is often staring you in the face. The problem with truth is that it is hard to believe. It is even harder to get other people to believe.

Talent is like a seed which needs fertile soil. There is no less talent now, there is less fertile soil to nourish it.

Nothing is as hopeless as trying to justify art in words.

Too much freedom inhibits choice. Constructive narrowness clarifies choice.

One needs to be right before getting righteous.

Originality is way overrated. To make, you need to take. All great artists do.

The more freedom artists have to do what they want to do, the more they do what other artists are doing.

When imitation goes over big, it isn't imitation, it is a trend.

Big minds have big ideas. Small minds use big ideas to justify bad ideas.

Without the eye, the head is blind. Without the head, the eye is adrift.

Limitation of means is a precondition of excellence. Creative freedom chooses its limitations. Destructive freedom rejects them heedlessly.

Many years ago, Clement Greenberg said, 'All profoundly original work looks ugly at first.' This should be updated now to 'All profoundly ugly work looks original at first.

Art is like a butterfly fluttering in a meadow. Analysis of art is like a butterfly on a pin. Each has its value, but we must always be aware of the difference, and what is gained or lost.

When making a painting, only one thing counts: what you do next.

Art is making something better without knowing what better is until you make it.

Good new art may not look like art. Inspiration doesn't follow style, it creates it.

We learn to lie by believing words rather than experience.

Good art looks new because the artist has recombined something old to make something better.

Postmodernism does not help us understand good art. It encourages art that can be easily understood and throws in something catchy to cover the loss of mystery.