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Art Quote by Ben Shahn

“What is it about conformity itself that causes us all…” quote by Ben Shahn — Download Open image

“What is it about conformity itself that causes us all to require it of our neighbors and of our artists and then, with consummate fickleness, to forget those who fall into line and eternally celebrate those who do not?”

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Art Artist Causes Celebrate Conformity Fall Forget Lines Neighbor

More by Ben Shahn

I became interested in photography when I was sharing a studio with Walker Evans, and found my own sketching was inadequate.

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It is an intimately communicative affair between the painter and his painting, a conversation back and forth, the painting telling the painter even as…

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An amateur is someone who supports himself with outside jobs which enable him to paint. A professional is someone whose wife works to enable…

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Art almost always has its ingredient of impudence, its flouting of established authority, so that it may substitute its own authority and its own…

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The artist is likely to be looked upon with some uneasiness by the more conservative members of society.

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Only an individual can imagine, invent, or create. The whole audience of art is an audience of individuals.

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To abstract is to draw out the essence of a matter.

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The natural reaction of the artist will be strongly towards bringing man back into focus as the center of importance.

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Each artist comes to the painting or sculpture because there he can be told that he, the individual, transcends all classes and flouts all…

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All art is based on non-conformity.

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I was primarily interested in people, and people in action, so that I did nothing photographically in the sense of doing buildings for their…

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I remember traveling around in Arkansas with Senator Robinson, and I told him what this little trick was. He felt very much part of…

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Explore all 63 Ben Shahn quotes

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True works of art contain their own theory and give us the measurement according to which we should judge them.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Before Noah, men having only water to drink, could not find the truth. Accordingly...they became abominably wicked, and they were justly exterminated by the…

Benjamin Franklin

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“Hear the sum of the whole matter in the compass of one brief word — every art possessed by man comes from Prometheus.”

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I think most artists feel like they're outside society - no matter how many accolades they receive, or how much money is in your…

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The capacity to be puzzled is the premise of all creation, be it in art or in science.

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That's the great secret of creativity. You treat ideas like cats: you make them follow you.

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“So, really," continued Jacob as if this were perfectly normal to expound on art in these circumstances, "when you think about it, the artists…

Justina Chen Headley

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“There are two options in art; either to adopt philosophical life by dissecting art, or to write your own philosophical life and claim it…

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The house has to serve comfort. The work of art is revolutionary; the house is conservative.

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During human progress, every science is evolved out of its corresponding art.

Herbert Spencer

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In literature and art memory is a synonym for invention. It is the life-blood of imagination, which faints and dies when the veins are…

Robert Aris Willmott

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I think a business guy is different from an artist. They walk different paths. Artists create the best outputs when they're having fun. And…

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