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Artist Quotes by Paul Gauguin

45 Artist quotes by Paul Gauguin

All Artist quotes Paul Gauguin’s page

Paul Gauguin says a true artist must break from the past and become a revolutionary master. He talks about painting colors simply—red next to blue—without overthinking. He also notes that the public often wants instant understanding, while real mastery is a private contract with oneself.

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Art is either plagiarism or revolution.

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Nothing so resembles a daub as a masterpiece.

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It is better to paint from memory, for thus your work will be your own...

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Do not copy nature too much. Art is an abstraction.

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My God! How terrible these money questions are for an artist!

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Art is either a plagiarist or a revolutionist.

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Art = a mad search for individualism.

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“Absinthe is the only decent drink that suits an artist.”

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In art, all who have done something other than their predecessors have merited the epithet of revolutionary; and it is they alone…

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“I tried to make everything breathe in this painting: faith, quiet suffering, religious and primitive style, and great nature with its scream.”

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I am a great artist and I know it. It's because I am that I have endured such sufferings.

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What still concerns me the most is: am I on the right track, am I making progress, am I making mistakes in…

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In art there are only two types of people: revolutionaries and plagiarists

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The flat sound of my wooden clogs on the cobblestones, deep, hollow and powerful, is the note I seek in my painting.

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The public wants to understand and learn in a single day, a single minute, what the artist has spent years learning.

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In painting one must search rather for suggestion than for description, as is done in music.

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A bit of advice, don't copy nature too closely. Art is an abstraction; as you dream amid nature, extrapolate art from it,…

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Out in the sun, some painters are lined up. The first is copying nature, the second is copying the first, the third…

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No one wants my painting because it is different from other people's peculiar, crazy public that demands the greatest possible degree of…

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The history of modern art is also the history of the progressive loss of art's audience. Art has increasingly become the concern…

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A hint - don't paint too much direct from nature. Art is an abstraction! study nature then brood on it and treasure…

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“Don't paint from nature too much. Art is an abstraction. Derive this abstraction from nature while dreaming before it, and think more…

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Nature has mysterious infinities and imaginative power. It is always varying the productions it offers to us. The artist himself is one…

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In art, there are only two types of people: revolutionaries and plagiarists. And in the end, doesn't the revolutionary's work become official,…

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Painting is the most beautiful of all arts. In it, all sensations are condensed, at its aspect everyone may create romance at…

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Proficiency in art is a contract with your self and the empowerment of your self. Not all of us demand or even…

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I am leaving in order to have peace and quiet. To be rid of the influence of civilization. I only want to…

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Painting is the most beautiful of all arts. In it, all sensations are condensed; contemplating it, everyone can create a story at…

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Why did I hesitate to put all this glory of the sun on my canvas?

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Art is either revolution or plagiarism

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It was so simple to paint things as I saw them; to put without special calculation a red close to a blue.

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Do not copy nature. Art is an abstraction. Rather, bring your art forth by dreaming in front of her and think more…

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Art requires philosophy, just as philosophy requires art. Otherwise, what would become of beauty?

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I was aware that on my skill as a painter would depend the physical and moral possession of the model...

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I am a great artist and I know it, it is because I am that I have been able to endure so…

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Poor artist! You gave away part of your soul when you painted the picture which you are now trying to dispose of.

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It is well for young men to have a model, but let them draw the curtain over it while they are painting.

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A critic in my house sees some paintings. Greatly perturbed, he asks for my drawings. My drawings? Never! They are my letters,…

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I'd like to write the way I do my paintings, that is, as fantasy takes me, as the moon dictates.

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There is no such thing as exaggerated art. I even believe that there is salvation only in extreme.

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More by Paul Gauguin

In art, all who have done something other than their predecessors have merited the epithet of revolutionary; and it is they alone who are…

It is well for young men to have a model, but let them draw the curtain over it while they are painting.

Today one can dare anything, and, furthermore, nobody is surprised.

It was so simple to paint things as I saw them; to put without special calculation a red close to a blue.

Out in the sun, some painters are lined up. The first is copying nature, the second is copying the first, the third is copying…

However depressed I may be I am not in the habit of giving up a project without having tried everything, even the 'impossible', to…

Lacking many of the essential implements, it irritated me to be reduced to impotence in the face of artistic projects to which I had…

Life has no meaning unless one lives it with a will, at least to the limit of one's will. Virtue, good, evil are nothing…

When the physical organism breaks up, the soul survives. It then takes on another body.

Proficiency in art is a contract with your self and the empowerment of your self. Not all of us demand or even desire proficiency,…

Sometimes people accuse me of being incomprehensible only because they look for an explicative side to my pictures which is not there.

“Do what you like, so long as it is intelligent.”

One's state of mind is three-quarters of what counts, so it has to be carefully nurtured if you want to do something great and…

The public wants to understand and learn in a single day, a single minute, what the artist has spent years learning.

Stay firmly in your path and dare; be wild two hours a day!