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Art Quote by Sol LeWitt

“One usually understands the art of the past by applying the conventions of the present thus misunderstanding the art of the past.” quote by Sol LeWitt — Download Open image

“One usually understands the art of the past by applying the conventions of the present thus misunderstanding the art of the past.”

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Art Conventions Learning Misunderstanding Past Time

More by Sol LeWitt

New materials are one of the great afflictions of contemporary art. Some artists confuse new materials with new ideas.

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The artist is seen like a producer of commodities, like a factory that turns our refrigerators.

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Most ideas that are successful are ludicrously simple. Successful ideas generally have the appearance of simplicity because they seem inevitable. In terms of idea…

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Artists teach critics what to think. Critics repeat what the artists teach them.

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In my case, I used the elements of these simple forms - square, cube, line and color - to produce logical systems. Most of…

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Conceptual art became the liberating idea that gave the art of the next 40 years its real impetus.

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The narrative of serial art works more like music than like literature.

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Just as the development of earth art and installation art stemmed from the idea of taking art out of the galleries, the basis of…

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I didn't want to save art - I respected the older artists too much to think art needed saving. But I knew it was…

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One should be intelligent enough to know when not to be too intellectual

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I wasn't really that interested in objects. I was interested in ideas.

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Your work isn't a high stakes, nail-biting professional challenge. It's a form of play. Lighten up and have fun with it.

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Explore all 57 Sol LeWitt quotes

More Art quotes

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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