Mark Tobey Quotes

• The dimension that counts for the creative person is the space he creates within himself. This inner space is closer to the infinite than the other, and it is the privilege of the balanced mind... and the search for an equilibrium is essential - to be as aware of inner space as he is of outer space.

  Mark Tobey

  Space, Creative, Serenity

  Mark Tobey, J. François Mathey (1962). “Mark Tobey: Retrospective Exhibition, Paintings and Drawings 1925-1961 Whitechapel Gallery, London 1962”

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• I believe that painting should come through the avenues of meditation rather than the canals of action.

  Mark Tobey

  Believe, Meditation, Serenity

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• On pavements and the bark of trees I have found whole worlds.

  Mark Tobey

  Tree, World, Pavement

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• Problems are an important part of maturing--meet them straight on. Work them out. It's like the chick in the egg. It has to break through the eggshell on its own. That's how it gains its first strength. If you break the shell for the chick, you end up with a puny little runt.

  Mark Tobey

  Break Through, Eggs, Important

  Mark Tobey, Wesley Wehr, Cheney Cowles Memorial Museum (1988*). “Mark Tobey, a new look: Cheney Cowles Museum, Spokane, February 19-March 27, 1988”

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• At a time when experimentation expresses itself in all forms of life, search becomes the only valid expression of the spirit.

  Mark Tobey

  Expression, Spirit, Form

  Mark Tobey, Arthur L. Dahl (1984). “Mark Tobey, art and belief”, George Ronald Pub Ltd

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• An artist must find his expression closely linked to his individual experience or else follow in the old grooves resulting in lifeless forms.

  Mark Tobey

  Artist, Expression, Individual

  Mark Tobey, Arthur L. Dahl (1984). “Mark Tobey, art and belief”, George Ronald Pub Ltd

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• According to one critic, my works looked like scraped billboards. I went to look at the billboards and decided that more billboards should be scraped.

  Mark Tobey

  Looks, Should, Critics

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• The search for an equilibrium is essential for the artist, to be as aware of inner space as he is of outer space.

  Mark Tobey

  Artist, Space, Essentials

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• I am accused often of too much experimentation.., but what else should I do when all other factors of man are in the same condition. I thrust forward into space as science and the rest do.

  Mark Tobey

  Men, Space, Too Much

  Mark Tobey, Arthur L. Dahl (1984). “Mark Tobey, art and belief”, George Ronald Pub Ltd

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• White lines in movement symbolize a unifying idea which flows through the compartmented units of life bringing the consciousness of a larger relativity.

  Mark Tobey

  Ideas, White, Movement

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• We all feel a separateness; we wish that a drop of water would soften our ego; the world needs a common conscience: agreement... we must concentrate outside ourselves.

  Mark Tobey

  Agreement, Water, Ego

  Bahai lecture; as quoted in "Abstract Expressionist Painting in America", W.C. Seitz, 1983, pp. 66/67, 1951.

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• Sitting on the floor of a room in Japan, looking out on a small garden with flowers blooming and dragonflies hovering in space, I suddenly felt as if I had been too long above my boots.

  Mark Tobey

  Flower, Garden, Japan

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• I've tried to decentralize and interpenetrate so that all parts of a painting are of related value.

  Mark Tobey

  Painting, Related, Values

  "Abstract Expressionism". Book by Barbara Hess, Taschen, Köln, p. 60, 2006.

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• We look at the mountain to see the painting, then we look at the painting to see the mountain.

  Mark Tobey

  Mountain, Looks, Painting

  Mark Tobey, Kosme María de Barañano Letamendía, Matthias Bärmann, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (1997). “Mark Tobey”

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• Now it seems to me that we are in a universalising period... If we are to have world peace, we should have an understanding of all the idioms of beauty because the members of humanity who have created these idioms of beauty are going to be a part of us. And I would say that we are in a period when we are discovering and becoming acquainted with these idioms for the first time.

  Mark Tobey

  Should Have, Understanding, Humanity

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• Don't help the young too much — it will just weaken them and they'll resent it, and finally start avoiding you.

  Mark Tobey

  Want, Too Much, Helping

  "Mark Tobey, a new look: Cheney Cowles Museum, Spokane, February 19-March 27, 1988".

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• Reality must be expressed by a physical symbol.

  Mark Tobey

  Reality, Symbols

  Bahai lecture, New York; as quoted in "Abstract Expressionist Painting in America", W.C. Seitz, 1983, p. 10, October 30, 1951.

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• There has been 32 isms since the advent of cubism, yet after all there are essentially the same two old strings, the Romantic and the Classical. We've just be confused by the storm. Science and psychology have played a great part to say nothing of sex.

  Mark Tobey

  Sex, Confused, Two

  "Abstract Expressionist Painting in America". Book by William C. Seitz, p. 103, 1983.

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• We have tried to fit man into abstraction, but he does not fit.

  Mark Tobey

  Men, Doe, Fit

  Bahai lecture, New York; as quoted in "Abstract Expressionist Painting in America", W.C. Seitz, 1983, p. 104, October 30, 1951.

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• Every artist's problem today is: What will we do with the human?

  Mark Tobey

  Artist, Today, Problem

  Mark Tobey, Arthur L. Dahl (1984). “Mark Tobey, art and belief”, George Ronald Pub Ltd

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• But there was escape, too, even in those days, for there was Whistler living in the grey mists with a faded orange moon. The nocturne transformed itself into dreamy rooms with Chopin's music creating a mood that softened the hard core of self.

  Mark Tobey

  Moon, Self, Creating

  "Reminiscence and Reverie" by Mark Tobey, Magazine of Art, 44, pp. 228, 231, October 1951.

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• The Cubists used the figure, but they broke it up.

  Mark Tobey

  Broke, Used, Figures

  "Abstract Expressionist Painting in America". Book by W.C. Seitz, p.58, In conversation with Seitz, 1983.

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