Artist Quotes by Martin Filler

Elevated locations imply elevated purposes, even in American cities departing as radically as Los Angeles does from the traditional planning patterns of the Eastern…

— Martin Filler

Architecture is not a profession for the faint-hearted, the weak-willed, or the short-lived.

— Martin Filler

The danger for any artist whose work is both recognizable and critically acclaimed is complacent repetition - the temptation to churn out easily identifiable,…

— Martin Filler

Architectural kitsch is most common in the commercial pop vernacular - typified by the Big Duck of 1931 in Flanders, New York, a Long…

— Martin Filler

The Frankfurt Museum of Decorative Arts is a handsome building, which takes its cues from the riverside Biedermeier villa next to it, and it…

— Martin Filler

The most basic task of any museum must be the protection of works of cultural significance entrusted to its care for the edification and…

— Martin Filler

Postmodernism came nowhere close in quality to Modernism at its apogee, not least because that later style wholly lacked the social impetus that animated…

— Martin Filler

One reason I've never been a fan of graphic novels is because a central aspect of literature for me has always been imagining what…

— Martin Filler

The truth be told, the World Trade Center was neither a very good work of architecture nor a very successful piece of urbanism. Its…

— Martin Filler

During the modern period, the vanguard architect has usually relied on small residential jobs both to supply a steady income and to serve as…

— Martin Filler

We take from the art of the past what we need. The variable posthumous reputations of even the greatest artists and the unpredictable revivals…

— Martin Filler

Masterpieces of art possess immense potential to advance a worldview that could help assuage the societal terrors posed by globalization, the most thoroughgoing socioeconomic…

— Martin Filler

The work that launched Snohetta into the architectural big leagues was their Oslo Opera House, which will certainly rank among the firm's highlights whatever…

— Martin Filler

There can be little question that the tall building presents one of the most difficult challenges to the architect.

— Martin Filler

The first half of the 1960s was the apogee of what might be termed the Age of Cool - as defined by that quality…

— Martin Filler