I don't understand why a Mark Rothko painting - as much as I love Mark Rothko - has to cost $73 million. I mean, I think $14 million is a pretty reasonable sum of money for a good Rothko painting.… — Philip Taaffe Copy Share Image
What excites me and what I find most compelling is clearly not what excites other artists. It comes from my own idiosyncratic background and… — Philip Taaffe Copy Share Image
I'm not so interested in the effort that it takes to have a self-promotional outlook. I believe in being quiet and making my work… — Philip Taaffe Copy Share Image
Art exists through the act of making. It has to somehow be made manifest to another person. It has to do with what one… — Philip Taaffe Copy Share Image
I think that is the role of the artist in society - the cultural role of the artist is to perform a healing function. — Philip Taaffe Copy Share Image
There is a tendency in my work toward minimalism, in terms of stripping away the unnecessary. I am seeking a tightly ordered gestalt, usually.… — Philip Taaffe Copy Share Image
It's hard to fathom the psychology of the economics of art. I don't quite understand it, and I don't necessarily want to understand it. — Philip Taaffe Copy Share Image
I have a fairly unwieldy set of concerns that go into determining what I do in the paintings, such as the history of the… — Philip Taaffe Copy Share Image
An artist makes something to be physically experienced by another person. It's a raw, freely chosen, interpersonal relationship between the maker and the viewer,… — Philip Taaffe Copy Share Image
Ideas in art may be quite evident, and sometimes they're hidden. Sometimes they're simple, and sometimes they're quite complex. Great works of art can… — Philip Taaffe Copy Share Image
I have been very influenced by the Japanese concept of space - the preciousness of space, and how one's environment can be shaped to… — Philip Taaffe Copy Share Image
I will do a lot of research and create a lot of material for use in one painting. And then I go on discovering… — Philip Taaffe Copy Share Image
I don't want to fetishize the past. I want there to be a natural sequence coming out of a synthesis of the ideas and… — Philip Taaffe Copy Share Image
I'm trying to make a primitive painting. I'm trying to summon the archaic. I want to enter into a primitive situation. This is my… — Philip Taaffe Copy Share Image
Design is meant to grab you and win you over. It is meant to function in a way so as to make life easier.… — Philip Taaffe Copy Share Image
I'm very tolerant of other art and other artists. But what I truly appreciate, what I truly admire in contemporary art, is work that… — Philip Taaffe Copy Share Image
