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Art Quotes by Paul Gauguin

43 Art quotes by Paul Gauguin

All Art quotes Paul Gauguin’s page

Paul Gauguin declares that only those who break from predecessors earn the label revolutionary. He notes that artists often feel powerless without proper tools, yet proficiency becomes a personal contract. He also observes that modern art loses its audience, while painting condenses all sensations into a single story.

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Civilization is paralysis.

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Nothing so resembles a daub as a masterpiece.

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Art is either plagiarism or revolution.

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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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Art is either revolution or plagiarism

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

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

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Machines have come, art has fled, and I am far from thinking photography can help us.

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Many excellent cooks are spoilt by going into the arts.

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

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

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

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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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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. And in the end, doesn't the revolutionary's work become official,…

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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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“All the masters have those weak points that are called masterpieces; and besides, they do them as crowd pleasers -- to prove…

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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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“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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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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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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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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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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There are two sorts of beauty; one is the result of instinct, the other of study. A combination of the two, with…

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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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I am a great artist and I know it. It's because of what I am that I have endured so much suffering,…

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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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Seek art and abstraction in nature by dreaming in the presence of it.

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“Is there a recipe for making beauty? The schools give recipes, but they do not beget works that make people exclaim: "…

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

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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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“The self-esteem one acquires and a well-earned feeling of one's strength are the only consolation in this world. Income, after all, most…

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The great artist is a formulation of the greatest intelligence: he is the recipient of sensations which are the most delicate and…

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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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Perhaps I have no talent, but all vanity aside - I do not believe that anyone makes an artistic attempt, no matter…

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In art one is concerned with the condition of the spirit for three quarters of the time; one must therefore care for…

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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!