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Artist Quotes by Jacques Barzun

8 Artist quotes by Jacques Barzun

All Artist quotes Jacques Barzun’s page

Jacques Barzun’s musings on the artist surface in eight compact observations that read like notes from a lecture you’d want to replay. He pinpoints the tension between tradition and innovation, giving a clear sense of his scholarly yet personable voice.

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By the time I was 9, I had the conviction that everybody in the world was an artist except plumbers or people…

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We are accustomed to the artist scoundrel or specialist in vice, and unaccustomed to the creator in whom passion and reason and…

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The eager or dutiful persons who subject themselves to these tidal waves of the classics and the moderns find everything wonderful in…

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Art distills sensation and embodies it with enhanced meaning in a memorable form - or else it is not art.

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We cannot appreciate the art of any age without first acquiring an equivalent of the experience it depicts.

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My notion about any artist is that we honor him best by reading him, by playing his music, by seeing his plays…

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The greatest artists have never been men of taste. By never sophisticating their instincts they have never lost the awareness of the…

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An artist has every right - one may even say a duty - to exhibit his productions as prominently as he can.

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More by Jacques Barzun

The danger that may really threaten (crime fiction) is that soon there will be more writers than readers

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It seems a long time since the morning mail could be called correspondence.

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Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition.

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The reason why research is like sculpting from memory is that in neither is there a concrete visible subject to copy directly. The subject…

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Everybody keeps calling for Excellence - excellence not just in schooling, throughout society. But as soon as somebody or something stands out as Excellent,…

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Bernard Shaw remains the only model we have of what the citizen of a democracy should be: an informed participant in all things we…

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The ascetic is often a sensualist who has reached the limit of his capacity.

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Idealism springs from deep feelings, but feelings are nothing without the formulated idea that keeps them whole.

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In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day's work. It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty years.

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The mind tends to run along the groove of one's intention and overlook the actual expression.

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Vanity is a static thing. It puts it faith in what it has, and is easily wounded. Pride is active, and satisfied only with…

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By the time I was 9, I had the conviction that everybody in the world was an artist except plumbers or people who delivered groceries.

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A student under my care owes his first allegiance to himself and not to my specialty; and must not be burdened with my work…

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We are accustomed to the artist scoundrel or specialist in vice, and unaccustomed to the creator in whom passion and reason and moral integrity…

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The professionals resemble and recognize each other by virtue of the stigmata that their trade has left upon them. They are like the dog…

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