Figurative Art Quotes

• I often told the fanatics of realism that there is no such thing as realism in art: it only exists in the mind of the observer. Art is a symbol, a thing conjuring up reality in our mental image. That is why I don't see any contradiction between abstract and figurative art either.

  Antoni Tapies

  Art, Reality, Mind

  "Tàpies, Werke auf Papier 1943 - 2003" by Antoni Tapies, Kunsthalle Emden, edited by Achim Sommer, Altana, (p. 25), 2004.

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• Neither is there figurative and non-figurative art. All things appear to us in the shape of forms. Even in metaphysics ideas are expressed by forms. Well then, think how absurd it would be to think of painting without the imagery of forms. A figure, an object, a circle, are forms; they affect us more or less intensely.

  Pablo Picasso

  Art, Thinking, Circles

  "Letters of the Great Artists - From Blake to Pollock". Book by Richard Friedenthal, Thames and Hudson, London, pp. 257-258, 1963.

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• We are all hungry and thirsty for concrete images. Abstract art will have been good for one thing: to restore its exact virginity to figurative art.

  Salvador Dali

  Art, Hungry, Thirsty

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• We are all hungry and thirsty for concrete images.

  Salvador Dali

  Hungry, Thirsty, Concrete

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• China is important to the world in that they are a force and on the move. Exposing them to figurative art opens up a potential for artistic expression far greater than anyone would ever have dreamed possible until today. It is this very spirit of the struggle and determination to triumph that inspires creative expression.

  Richard MacDonald

  Determination, Art, Struggle

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• No matter how brilliant, amusing or intelligent the creek of abstraction, Dadaism, Minimalism and Conceptualism of the 20th century was, it didn't much affect the historical river of figuration. I predict that in 50 years and in 300 years, figurative art will still be strong and important.

  Mark Kostabi

  Art, Strong, Intelligent

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• What interests me is all the stuff that goes into abstract and abstract-figurative art. Not the styles, but the stuff that, in various combinations, make the styles: mixing and matching painting methods and ideas.

  Ed Askew

  Art, Ideas, Style

  Interview with Christian Filardo, logger.believermag.com. November 27, 2013.

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• When religion becomes artificial, art has a duty to rescue it. Art can show that the symbols which religions would have us believe literally true are actually figurative. Art can idealize those symbols, and so reveal the profound truths they contain.

  Richard Wagner

  Art, Believe, Profound

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