Explore our collection of artwork quotes that can be incredibly moving and provide insight into the process and passion that drives creators.
It’s no secret that some of the most memorable, moving, and impactful moments in our lives come from art. Whether it’s a song that gets us through a tough time, a painting that brings beauty into our lives, or even just a quote that we can relate to, art has a way of truly resonating with us on a personal level.
No matter what your personal views on art may be, there is sure to be at least one quote in this article that speaks to you. So sit back, relax, and enjoy reading about some of the most memorable artwork quotes from a variety of famous creators that just might inspire you.
Quotes about artwork
If you’re feeling uninspired, take heart in knowing that you’re not alone – even the greats have had their share of art block. To help jump start your creativity, we’ve compiled a list of artwork quotes from some of the most prolific painters, sculptors, and artists throughout history.
“The artwork had very little to do with the thought process, and the writing too, for that matter. What happens, happens, and it happens outside the brain.”
Jules Feiffer
“We are all phenomenal manifestations of a divine will to live, and that will and the consciousness of life is one in all of us, and that is what artwork expresses.”
Joseph Campbell
“The real art is in the street, is making the artwork, and for that you have to involve people. The action is actually the artwork.”
JR
“An artwork should point in more than one direction, not be this sort of placating, self-demonstrating, witnessing element.”
Luc Tuymans
“To make an artwork good enough to enter people’s hearts is like what ancient Chinese called ‘making stone into gold.’ It is alchemy.”
Li Shan
“There’s no single artwork I even want to mention or that I can even really think about it to have any feeling, to be proud of it.”
Ai Weiwei
“Artwork can be a portal, a kind of rethinking and reseeing of the world as we live it.”
Todd Solondz
“I’m a visual artist myself and always have been so it’s very natural for me to be very concerned with presentation, whether it’s artwork or onstage.”
PJ Harvey
“The viewer brings something individual to the experience of any artwork.”
Olafur Eliasson
“Using what you have always enhances what’s to come no matter if it’s an album, song, artwork or whatever.”
B.J. The Chicago Kid
Inspirational artwork quotes
Art has the ability to transcend time and space, connecting people across the globe. These artwork quotes will inspire you to create your own art and become an artist yourself.
“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”
Pablo Picasso
“Any artwork needs time and patience and needs above a quiet mind.”
Flora Thompson
“I always see these landscapes in my dreams, and feel happy. I desperately try to transform these dreams into artwork, so that even while napping, I construct and reconstruct various images.”
Yayoi Kusama
“Gift-wrap the framed artwork on your walls and rehang them – what’s nicer than a wall of presents to look at?”
Amy Sedaris
“Nothing is more hackneyed than the liberal dogma that shock value confers automatic importance on an artwork.”
Camille Paglia
“Any artwork is part of something larger, grander and, you know, the situation that it’s in is very important.”
Robert Barry
“Sometimes an artist’s vision may get blurred when subjected to a committee because an artwork is usually an expression of something unconscious that is better left in the realm of one person’s unconscious if it is to speak to another person’s unconscious.”
Philippa Perry
“Artwork is super-important, that’s why my videos are the way they are.”
Donnis
“It’s important for me to give each thing the possibility to speak and also to allow artworks speak to each other.”
Michael Craig-Martin
“I’m very particular about everything. That goes along with the artwork, and how it’s laid out, and every lyric. So it’s pretty much all in my hands, which is crazy to be touring and doing that at the same time.”
BØRNS
Creativity artwork quotes
Some of the most successful creatives have shared inspiring artwork quotes that remind us why art is so important.
“Any material may be used but the theme is the same and the response is the same for all artwork. We all have the same concern, but the artist must know exactly what the experience is. He must pursue the truth relentlessly.”
Agnes Martin
“I begin by imagining an artwork verbally. I try to describe in writing what the project is, what it is trying to do. I need to understand the artwork without giving it a specific materiality or solid form.”
Maya Lin
“If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. That’s why they call it artWORK!”
Lee Hammond
“Some visual artworks are made to be talked about more than to be seen, others are made to be seen more than to be talked about. I think I belong in the latter category.”
Mati Klarwein
“You make an open-ended proposition and the audience completes it somehow. That’s what you hope an artwork to be-a constantly living thing.”
Cornelia Parker
“In an artwork you’re always looking for artistic decisions, so an ashtray is perfect. An ashtray has got life and death.”
Damien Hirst
“Whenever you finish an artwork and the viewer comes and views it, at that moment you’ve given up control.”
Jeff Koons
“The business of living – that’s your artwork, and the process of that is finding out who you are, what it all means.”
Susan Sullivan
“How can anybody learn anything from an artwork when the piece of art only reflects the vanity of the artist and not reality?”
Lou Reed
“The seed of your next artwork lies embedded in the imperfections of your current piece.”
David Bayles
Inspiring artwork quotes
Artwork quotes are the perfect way to bring out your inner artist. With so many different options to choose from, you can find the perfect quote to fit your mood and style. Check out these list:
“People quickly look through things and don’t sit and experience. That’s a problem with artwork, [because] it’s more of an experience than something to quickly look at. It takes a while for everything to unveil itself.”
Ali Banisadr
“While some part of the artwork may fail, the whole may have its own unique importance.”
Eric Maisel
“In life learn art, in the artwork learn life. If you see the one correctly you see the other also.”
Friedrich Holderlin
“From the very early stage when I started doing performance art in the ’s, the general attitude – not just me, but also my colleagues – was that there should not be any documentation, that the performance itself is artwork and there should be no documentation.”
Marina Abramovic
“One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.”
Oscar Wilde
“You never really get to touch anything that you’re doing unless you print it out. I don’t really enjoy making artwork on a computer because it doesn’t seem like I’ve done anything.”
Stanley Donwood
“I could never live without artwork. It’s a constant inspiration.”
Narciso Rodriguez
“Do not leave your reputation to chance or gossip; it is your life’s artwork, and you must craft it, hone it, and display it with the care of an artist.”
Robert Greene
“The adventurous state of mind is a high house. The joy of adventure is unaccountable. This is the attractiveness of artwork. It is adventurous, strenuous and joyful.”
Agnes Martin
“Love the art in yourself, not yourself in the art.”
Constantin Stanislavski
Sculpture artwork quotes
Some people use sculpture as a way to memorialize someone they have lost, while others use it as a way to celebrate an important event in their lives. No matter what the reason for creating a sculpture, the end result is usually something that is both beautiful and meaningful. Here are some artwork quotes about sculpture that capture its beauty and importance:
“Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.”
Michelangelo
“The seed of your next artwork lies embedded in the imperfections of your current piece. Such imperfections are your guides – valuable, objective, non-judgmental guides to matters you need to reconsider or develop further.”
David Bayles
“Sculpture is the art of the intelligence.”
Pablo Picasso
“The alchemy of good curating amounts to this: Sometimes, placing one work of art near another makes one plus one equal three. Two artworks arranged alchemically leave each intact, transform both, and create a third thing.”
Jerry Saltz
“You have to create your life. You have to carve it, like a sculpture.”
William Shatner
“Where the material ends, art begins.”
Etienne Hajdu
“I have always sought after the real and the true in my art. I look for it in nature, but I also find it in the simplest forms of human expression.”
Henry Moore
“A sculpture is not just an object to be looked at; it is also something that should be experienced.”
Carl Andre
“The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.”
Michelangelo
“Painting and sculpture help other people to see what a wonderful world we live in.”
Henry Moore
Painting artwork quotes
A painting is not just a piece of art; it is a story that needs to be told. These inspirational artwork quotes on painting will help you sparks your imagination.
“The painter needs all the talent of the poet, plus hand-eye coordination.”
Robert Breault
“Painting is a fine art: not merely because it gives us trees and faces and lovely things to see, but because paint is a finely tuned antenna, reacting to very unnoticed movement of the painter’s hand, fixing the faintest shadow of a thought in color and texture.”
James Elkins
“In a sense, the artwork is the most important thing in getting somebody to buy a book. The person probably won’t buy a book if he doesn’t like the artwork. Once you buy it for the artwork, you hope that the story will also be good.”
Stan Lee
“The meaning of an artwork is changing depending on who’s looking at it – depending on what culture, depending on what time, and so forth. It’s alive.”
Sarah Morris
“Eloquence is a painting of the thoughts.”
Blaise Pascal
“A painting is like a dream that you can hold in your hand.”
Renee French
“Painting completed my life.”
Frida Kahlo
“So when I’m playing, I’m sort of painting a feeling in the air.”
Pharrell Williams
“There is not one piece of artwork I have ever done that lived up to the vision I had for it in my head. That’s why I keep on trying. Maybe someday I’ll do it. I don’t want to be in the past. I want to get to the next thing.”
Jim Steranko
“Painting is by nature a luminous language.”
Robert Delaunay
Drawing artwork quotes
“Artwork operates on two different levels: On one level there’s artwork as a mode of expressivity, and then there’s the other side, where the image is a construction that is meant to engage in a discursive field in order to preform a particular function.”
Kerry James Marshall
“I kind of do the drawing with the painting in mind, but it’s very hard to guess at a size or a color and all the colors around it and what it will really look like.”
Roy Lichtenstein
“Sometimes, you start with the drawing and then the gag comes to you in the middle of it. That is when you start working on the solution of the gag, which is composition, placing, equilibrium, and character design.”
Sergio Aragones
“I never draw except with brush and paint.”
Claude Monet
“There are many ways to draw beautifully. It’s important to let the drawing be an investigation and sometimes, in order to investigate, you need to go off the path.”
Jacob Collins
“Drawings are only a few lines on paper. Therefore it’s easy to carry around in plastic bags. Drawings are cheaper than paintings. They don’t pretend they’ll last forever.”
Marlene Dumas
“I have learned that what I have not drawn, I have never really seen.”
Frederick Franck
“Drawing is the basis of art. A bad painter cannot draw. But one who draws well can always paint.”
Arshile Gorky
“An individual’s ability to draw is…the ability to shift to a different-from-ordinary way of processing visual information – to shift from verbal, analytic processing to spatial, global processing.”
Betty Edwards
“I felt that everything is beautiful, but that which man tries intentionally to make beautiful; that the work of an ordinary bricklayer is more valid than the artwork of all but a very few artists.”
Ellsworth Kelly
Final thought
The artwork quotes can provide inspiration and beauty in our lives. They can also be used to promote positive messages and help people feel connected to one another. We hope that you find inspiration in these words and that they help you to see the world in a new light.
Remember, art can be a form of self-care, and it is vital to choose pieces that make you feel good. Whether it is a painting, sculpture, or photograph, take the time to find artwork quotes that resonate with you.
Did you enjoy our artwork quotes and sayings? Which one that resonate with you the most? Write your opinion in the comment section below.
Read more: sketch quotes | portrait quotes | art therapy quotes | murals quotes | graffiti quotes.