That which takes us by surprise-moments of happiness-that is inspiration.
AGNES MARTINWhat I say is that we’re capable of a transcendent response, and I think it makes us happy. And I do think beauty produces a transcendent response.
More Agnes Martin Quotes
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I once taught art to adults in a night course. I had a woman who painted her back yard, and she said it was the first time she had ever really looked at it. I think everyone sees beauty. Art is a way to respond
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When I think of art I think of beauty. Beauty is the mystery of life. It is not in the eye it is in the mind. In our minds there is awareness of perfection.
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This is the attractiveness of artwork. It is adventurous, strenuous and joyful.
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I think it’s a response in our minds to perfection. It’s too bad, people not realizing that their minds expand beyond this world.
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I’m very careful not to have ideas, because they’re inaccurate.
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I paint with my back to the world
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My paintings are not about what is seen. They are about what is known forever in the mind.
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It would be an endless battle if it were all up to ego because it does not destroy and is not destroyed by itself It is like a wave it makes itself up,It rushes forward getting nowhere really it crashes
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I hope I have made it clear that the work is about perfection as we are aware of it in our minds but that the paintings are very far from being perfect – completely removed in fact – even as we ourselves are.
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Give up doing the things that you do not like to do.
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There’s nobody living who couldn’t stand all afternoon in front of a waterfall …. Anyone who can sit on a stone in a field awhile can see my painting.
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The worst thing you can think about when you’re working is yourself.
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I think our minds respond to things beyond this world. Take beauty: it’s a very mysterious thing, isn’t it?
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I think everyone sees beauty. Art is a way to respond
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I’m very careful not to have ideas, because they’re inaccurate.
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Art is the concrete representation of our most subtle feelings.
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The Minimalists are idealist. They want to minimise themselves in favour of the ideal. But I just can’t. You see, my paintings are not cool.
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The artist works by awareness of his own state of mind.
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It is commonly thought that everything that is can be put into words.
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The manipulation of materials in an artwork is a result of this state of mind.
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What we really want to do is serve happiness. We want everyone to be happy, never unhappy even for a moment. We want the animals to be happy.
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All that seems like error is not error; and it all has to be done. That which seems like a false step is the next step.
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Happiness is being on the beam with life – to feel the pull of life
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You can’t make a perfect painting. We can see perfection in our minds. But we can’t make a perfect painting.
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When I first made a grid I happened to be thinking of the innocence of trees and then this grid came into my mind and I thought it represented innocence, and I still do, and so I painted it and then I was satisfied. I thought, this is my vision.
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I want to emphasize the fact that we all have the same experience and the same concern, but the artist must know exactly what the experience is. He must pursue the truth relentlessly.
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