A definition of art is that it makes concrete our most subtle emotions. I think the highest form of art is music. It’s the most abstract of all art expression.
AGNES MARTINThat which takes us by surprise-moments of happiness-that is inspiration.
More Agnes Martin Quotes
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We all have the same concern, but the artist must know exactly what the experience is. He must pursue the truth relentlessly
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What 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.
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Nature is like parting a curtain, you go into it …. as you would cross an empty beach to look at the ocean.
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Beauty is the mystery of life. It is not in the eye, it is in the mind.
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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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One must see the ideal in one’s own mind. It is like a memory – an awareness -of perfection.
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My paintings are certainly nonobjective. They’re just horizontal lines.
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Doing what you were born to do … That’s the way to be happy.
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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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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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The enormous pitfall is devotion to oneself instead of to life. All works that are self-devoted are absolutely ineffective.
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I’m very careful not to have ideas, because they’re inaccurate.
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That which takes us by surprise-moments of happiness-that is inspiration.
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I think everyone sees beauty. Art is a way to respond
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The worst thing you can think about when you’re working is yourself.
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