--- title: "10 Figuration Quotes by 10 authors" description: "Browse 10 Figuration quotes by 10 authors. Discover the best Figuration sayings and thoughts." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f4e/kiki-smith-10643_firsts_i-first-had-no-interest-in-figuration-wh_122684.jpg" --- > [I first had no interest in figuration whatsoever.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kiki-smith/i-first-had-no-interest-in-figuration-whatsoever/) [Kiki Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kiki-smith/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f4e/kiki-smith-10643_firsts_i-first-had-no-interest-in-figuration-wh_122684.jpg) > [My tendency towards bareness and simplification has been practiced in three fields: modeling, colors, and the figuration of the personages.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-miro/my-tendency-towards-bareness-and-simplification-has-been-practiced-in/) [Joan Miro](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-miro/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ea0/joan-miro-15041_color_my-tendency-towards-bareness-and-simplif_2016266.jpg) > [A precision of composition and figuration is what I'm working toward. I've always felt viewers should have an experience without having to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/eric-fischl/a-precision-of-composition-and-figuration-is-what-i-m-working-toward/) [Eric Fischl](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/eric-fischl/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7b1/eric-fischl-25287_asks_a-precision-of-composition-and-figuratio_1882152.png) > [No matter how brilliant, amusing or intelligent the creek of abstraction, Dadaism, Minimalism and Conceptualism of the 20th century was, it didn't…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-kostabi/no-matter-how-brilliant-amusing-or-intelligent-the-creek-of/) [Mark Kostabi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-kostabi/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a46/mark-kostabi-25250_20th-century_no-matter-how-brilliant-amusing-or-intel_2004196.jpg) > [You want accuracy, but not representation. If you know how to make the figuration, it doesn't work. Anything you can make, you…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/francis-bacon/you-want-accuracy-but-not-representation-if-you-know-how-to-make-the/) [Francis Bacon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/francis-bacon/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0b2/francis-bacon-297_accidents_you-want-accuracy-but-not-representation_2730708.jpg) > [We do not know the true value of our moments until they have undergone the test of memory. Like the images the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/georges-duhamel/we-do-not-know-the-true-value-of-our-moments-until-they-have-2/) [Georges Duhamel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/georges-duhamel/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b12/georges-duhamel-25871_baths_we-do-not-know-the-true-value-of-our-mom_1431235.png) > [I think I'm just generally more interested in figuration than abstraction. I think that painting abstraction often feels like painting colors to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hilton-als/i-think-i-m-just-generally-more-interested-in-figuration-than/) [Hilton Als](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hilton-als/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/12b/hilton-als-7671_artist_i-think-i-m-just-generally-more-interest_632129.jpg) > [I often avoid using the terms 'figuration' and 'abstraction' because I've always tried to have it both ways. I want the experience…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cecily-brown/i-often-avoid-using-the-terms-figuration-and-abstraction-because-i-ve/) [Cecily Brown](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/cecily-brown/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/17c/cecily-brown-44932_abstraction_i-often-avoid-using-the-terms-figuration_1942113.jpg) > [“We know the original relation of the theater and the cult of the Dead: the first actors separated themselves from the community…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roland-barthes/we-know-the-original-relation-of-the-theater-and-the-cult-of-the-dead/) [Roland Barthes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/roland-barthes/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/080/roland-barthes-1062_morbidity_we-know-the-original-relation-of-the-the_1898954.png) > [“Imagination is not, as some poets have thought, simply synonymous with good. It may be either good or evil. As long as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/owen-barfield/imagination-is-not-as-some-poets-have-thought-simply-synonymous-with/) [Owen Barfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/owen-barfield/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c67/owen-barfield-38409_imagination_imagination-is-not-as-some-poets-have-th_2422412.jpg) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/figuration/#itemlist", "name": "Figuration Quotes", "numberOfItems": 10, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I first had no interest in figuration whatsoever.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Kiki Smith" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kiki-smith/i-first-had-no-interest-in-figuration-whatsoever/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f4e/kiki-smith-10643_firsts_i-first-had-no-interest-in-figuration-wh_122684.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f4e/kiki-smith-10643_firsts_i-first-had-no-interest-in-figuration-wh_122684.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f4e/kiki-smith-10643_firsts_i-first-had-no-interest-in-figuration-wh_122684.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I first had no interest in figuration whatsoever.” — Kiki Smith", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "My tendency towards bareness and simplification has been practiced in three fields: modeling, colors, and the figuration of the personages.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Joan Miro" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-miro/my-tendency-towards-bareness-and-simplification-has-been-practiced-in/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ea0/joan-miro-15041_color_my-tendency-towards-bareness-and-simplif_2016266.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ea0/joan-miro-15041_color_my-tendency-towards-bareness-and-simplif_2016266.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ea0/joan-miro-15041_color_my-tendency-towards-bareness-and-simplif_2016266.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“My tendency towards bareness and simplification has been practiced in three fields: modeling, colors, and…” — Joan Miro", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "A precision of composition and figuration is what I'm working toward. I've always felt viewers should have an experience without having to ask what the hell is was about.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Eric Fischl" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/eric-fischl/a-precision-of-composition-and-figuration-is-what-i-m-working-toward/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7b1/eric-fischl-25287_asks_a-precision-of-composition-and-figuratio_1882152.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7b1/eric-fischl-25287_asks_a-precision-of-composition-and-figuratio_1882152.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7b1/eric-fischl-25287_asks_a-precision-of-composition-and-figuratio_1882152.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“A precision of composition and figuration is what I'm working toward. I've always felt viewers should have…” — Eric Fischl", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "No matter how brilliant, amusing or intelligent the creek of abstraction, Dadaism, Minimalism and Conceptualism of the 20th century was, it didn't much affect the historical river of figuration. I predict that in 50 years and in 300 years, figurative art will still be strong and important.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Mark Kostabi" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-kostabi/no-matter-how-brilliant-amusing-or-intelligent-the-creek-of/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a46/mark-kostabi-25250_20th-century_no-matter-how-brilliant-amusing-or-intel_2004196.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a46/mark-kostabi-25250_20th-century_no-matter-how-brilliant-amusing-or-intel_2004196.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a46/mark-kostabi-25250_20th-century_no-matter-how-brilliant-amusing-or-intel_2004196.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“No matter how brilliant, amusing or intelligent the creek of abstraction, Dadaism, Minimalism and…” — Mark Kostabi", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 5, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "You want accuracy, but not representation. If you know how to make the figuration, it doesn't work. Anything you can make, you make by accident. In painting, you have to know what you do, not how, when you do it.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Francis Bacon" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/francis-bacon/you-want-accuracy-but-not-representation-if-you-know-how-to-make-the/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0b2/francis-bacon-297_accidents_you-want-accuracy-but-not-representation_2730708.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0b2/francis-bacon-297_accidents_you-want-accuracy-but-not-representation_2730708.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0b2/francis-bacon-297_accidents_you-want-accuracy-but-not-representation_2730708.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“You want accuracy, but not representation. If you know how to make the figuration, it doesn't work. Anything…” — Francis Bacon", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 6, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "We do not know the true value of our moments until they have undergone the test of memory. Like the images the photographer plunges into a golden bath, our sentiments take on color; and only then, after that recoil and that trans-figuration, do we understand their real meaning and enjoy them in all their tranquil splendor.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Georges Duhamel" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/georges-duhamel/we-do-not-know-the-true-value-of-our-moments-until-they-have-2/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b12/georges-duhamel-25871_baths_we-do-not-know-the-true-value-of-our-mom_1431235.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b12/georges-duhamel-25871_baths_we-do-not-know-the-true-value-of-our-mom_1431235.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b12/georges-duhamel-25871_baths_we-do-not-know-the-true-value-of-our-mom_1431235.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“We do not know the true value of our moments until they have undergone the test of memory. Like the images…” — Georges Duhamel", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 7, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I think I'm just generally more interested in figuration than abstraction. I think that painting abstraction often feels like painting colors to me, whereas portraits always feel like something connected. I like the exchange, the collaborative aspect of sitter and subject for sure.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Hilton Als" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hilton-als/i-think-i-m-just-generally-more-interested-in-figuration-than/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/12b/hilton-als-7671_artist_i-think-i-m-just-generally-more-interest_632129.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/12b/hilton-als-7671_artist_i-think-i-m-just-generally-more-interest_632129.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/12b/hilton-als-7671_artist_i-think-i-m-just-generally-more-interest_632129.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I think I'm just generally more interested in figuration than abstraction. I think that painting abstraction…” — Hilton Als", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 8, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I often avoid using the terms 'figuration' and 'abstraction' because I've always tried to have it both ways. I want the experience of looking at one of my paintings to be similar to the process of making the painting - you go from the big picture to something very intense and detailed, and then back again.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Cecily Brown" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cecily-brown/i-often-avoid-using-the-terms-figuration-and-abstraction-because-i-ve/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/17c/cecily-brown-44932_abstraction_i-often-avoid-using-the-terms-figuration_1942113.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/17c/cecily-brown-44932_abstraction_i-often-avoid-using-the-terms-figuration_1942113.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/17c/cecily-brown-44932_abstraction_i-often-avoid-using-the-terms-figuration_1942113.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I often avoid using the terms 'figuration' and 'abstraction' because I've always tried to have it both ways…” — Cecily Brown", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 9, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“We know the original relation of the theater and the cult of the Dead: the first actors separated themselves from the community by playing the role of the Dead: to make oneself up was to designate oneself as a body simultaneously living and dead: the whitened bust of the totemic theater, the man with the painted face in the Chinese theater, the rice-paste makeup of the Indian Katha-Kali, the Japanese No mask ... Now it is this same relation which I find in the Photograph; however 'lifelike' we strive to make it (and this frenzy to be lifelike can only be our mythic denial of an apprehension of death), Photography is a kind of primitive theater, a kind of Tableau Vivant, a figuration of the motionless and made-up face beneath which we see the dead.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Roland Barthes" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roland-barthes/we-know-the-original-relation-of-the-theater-and-the-cult-of-the-dead/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/080/roland-barthes-1062_morbidity_we-know-the-original-relation-of-the-the_1898954.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/080/roland-barthes-1062_morbidity_we-know-the-original-relation-of-the-the_1898954.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/080/roland-barthes-1062_morbidity_we-know-the-original-relation-of-the-the_1898954.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“We know the original relation of the theater and the cult of the Dead: the first actors separated themselves…” — Roland Barthes", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 10, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Imagination is not, as some poets have thought, simply synonymous with good. It may be either good or evil. As long as art remained primarily mimetic, the evil which imagination could do was limited by nature. Again, as long as it was treated as an amusement, the evil which it could do was limited in scope. But in an age when the connection between imagination and figuration is beginning to be dimly realized, when the fact of the directionally creator relation is beginning to break through into consciousness, both the good and the evil latent in the working of imagination begin to appear unlimited. We have seen in the Romantic movement an instance of the way in which the making of images may react upon the collective representations. It is a fairly rudimentary instance, but even so it has already gone beyond the dreams and responses of a leisured few. The economic and social structure of Switzerland is noticeably affected by its tourist industry, and that is due only in part to increased facilities of travel. It is due not less to the condition that (whatever may be said about their ‘particles’) the mountains which twentieth-century man sees are not the mountains which eighteenth-century man saw. It may be objected that this is a very small matter, and that it will be a long time before the imagination of man substantially alters those appearances of nature with which his figuration supplies him. But then I am taking the long view. Even so, we need not be too confident. Even if the pace of change remained the same, one who is really sensitive to (for example) the difference between the medieval collective representations and our own will be aware that, without traveling any greater distance than we have come since the fourteenth century, we could very well move forward into a chaotically empty or fantastically hideous world. But the pace of change has not remained the same. It has accelerated and is accelerating. We should remember this, when appraising the aberrations of the formally representational arts. Of course, in so far as these are due to affectation, they are of no importance. But in so far as they are genuine, they are genuine because the artist has in some way or other experienced the world he represents. And in so far as they are appreciated, they are appreciated by those who are themselves willing to make a move towards seeing the world in that way, and, ultimately therefore, seeing that kind of world. We should remember this, when we see pictures of a dog with six legs emerging from a vegetable marrow or a woman with a motorbicycle substituted for her left breast.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Owen Barfield" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/owen-barfield/imagination-is-not-as-some-poets-have-thought-simply-synonymous-with/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c67/owen-barfield-38409_imagination_imagination-is-not-as-some-poets-have-th_2422412.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c67/owen-barfield-38409_imagination_imagination-is-not-as-some-poets-have-th_2422412.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c67/owen-barfield-38409_imagination_imagination-is-not-as-some-poets-have-th_2422412.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Imagination is not, as some poets have thought, simply synonymous with good. It may be either good or evil…” — Owen Barfield", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } } ] }, { "@type": "CollectionPage", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/figuration/#webpage", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/figuration/", "name": "Figuration Quotes", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/figuration/#itemlist" }, "primaryImageOfPage": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f4e/kiki-smith-10643_firsts_i-first-had-no-interest-in-figuration-wh_122684.jpg" }, "description": "Browse 10 Figuration quotes by 10 authors. 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