art Quotes

I call architecture frozen music.

The mediator of the inexpressible is the work of art.

In art the best is good enough.

The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them.

Music is either sacred or secular. The sacred agrees with its dignity, and here has its greatest effect on life, an effect that remains the same through all ages and epochs. Secular music should be cheerful throughout.

The biggest problem with every art is by the use of appearance to create a loftier reality.

Objects in pictures should so be arranged as by their very position to tell their own story.

Philosophy is the highest music.

Find a beautiful piece of art. If you fall in love with Van Gogh or Matisse or John Oliver Killens, or if you fall love with the music of Coltrane, the music of Aretha Franklin, or the music of Chopin - find some beautiful art and admire it, and realize that that was created by human beings just like you, no more human, no less.

I find in my poetry and prose the rhythms and imagery of the best - I mean, when I'm at my best - of the good Southern black preachers. The lyricism of the spirituals and the directness of gospel songs and the mystery of blues are in my music or in my poetry and prose, or I missed everything.