It may be a point of great pride to have a Van Gogh on the living room wall, but the prospects of having Van Gogh himself in the living room would put a great many devoted art lovers to rout.
BEN SHAHNWhat is it about conformity itself that causes us all to require it of our neighbors and of our artists and then, with consummate fickleness, to forget those who fall into line and eternally celebrate those who do not?
More Ben Shahn Quotes
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Being an artist is not only what you do, but how you live your life.
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Only an individual can imagine, invent, or create. The whole audience of art is an audience of individuals.
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The apprehension of… values is intuitive; but it is not a built-in intuition, not something with which one is born. Intuition in art is actually the result of… prolonged tuition.
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I’ve been asked often what is the difference between an amateur and a professional artist, and I will tell you.
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If you’re going to be an artist, all life is your subject. And all your experience is part of your art.
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I believe that if it were left to artists to choose their own labels, most would choose none.
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It is not the how of painting but the why. To imitate a style would be a little like teaching a tone of voice or a personality.
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How do you paint yellow wheat against a yellow sky? You paint it jet black.
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Every great historic change has been based on nonconformity, has been bought either with the blood or with the reputation of nonconformists.
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The natural reaction of the artist will be strongly towards bringing man back into focus as the center of importance.
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When you talk about war on poverty it doesn’t mean very much; but if you can show to some degree this sort of thing then you can show a great deal more of how people are living and a very great percentage of our people today.
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Now, my knowledge of photography was terribly limited.
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The moving toward one’s inner self is a long pilgrimage for a painter. It offers many temporary successes and high points, but impels him on toward the more adequate image.
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To abstract is to draw out the essence of a matter.
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Content may by trivial. But I do not think that any person may pronounce either upon the weight or upon the triviality of an idea before its execution.
BEN SHAHN