Special Sub-Topic: Quotes from Artists Click Here To Play: Quotes from Artists

"Abstraction allows man to see with his mind what he cannot see physically with his eyes."

Arshile Gorky. Gorky was the link between European Modern Art and American Amstract Expression. Gorky served to liberate modern art in America, and his works led to abstract art becoming accepted in the United States.

"Contrary to common opinion, I would say that color has a more mysterious and perhaps more powerful influence: it acts, as one might say, without our knowledge."

Eugene Delacroix. Delacroix is often considered THE Romantic painter, largely due to a little work he did called 'Liberty Leading the People.' Hmm...

"And of what use are the rules? None at all. It is only necessary to feel and to see things in a different way, and where can that be learned?"

Berthe Morisot. Morisot knew something about the rules being useless. Everyone told her that she couldn't be a painter because she was a woman, and she (obviously) proved them very wrong.

"If you want more sentiment put into this picture I can with one or two touches, in five minutes time, give it the stomach ache that will suit any customer."

Winslow Homer. Homer's style was a blend between naturalism and Impressionism. He wanted to paint something as anyone would see it, not through the fastidious eyes of an artist.

"Art is harmony."

Georges Seurat. Seurat was the originator of the Pointillist style.

"I don't belong to any school. I work in my own corner. I admire Degas."

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Toulouse-Lautrec was most famous for his depictions of the Paris night life.

"I may only be a small coffee pot, but I have a big spout."

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Yes, that was Toulouse-Lautrec again. He was quite the character.

"Cubism is not a style, but an aesthetic, even a mental state."

Juan Gris. Although Gris was not a pioneer of Cubism, he was a master of it. He took the technical aspect of Cubism farther than his contemporaries. His work is perhaps the most solid of the Cubists.

"If I paint people the way they really look, they don't think anything of me. If I paint them the way they want me to, I don't think anything of myself."

Grant Wood. Grant Wood is perhaps best known for 'American Gothic.' Even if you don't know which painting I'm talking about, trust me, you've seen it.

"Although I had produced numerous designs by my fiftieth year, none of my works done before my seventieth is really worth counting."

Katsushika Hokusai. Hokusai's best-known work is 'The Great Wave Off Kanagawa,' which you've probably also seen in some form. The name isn't well known in America, but the image has been used and over used by pop culture. Look it up. Chances are it'll be familiar.

"Business art is what comes after art."

Andy Warhol. This one was a gimme. Andy Warhol = commercial art...

"Sculpture is the most perfect expression of action. You can say anything with clay."

Frederic Remington. Remington is often associated with his work pertaining to the WIld West. Action is what Remington most wanted to express, and he thought the best way to do that was through sculpture. His sculptures are miniature versions of high-energy, high-action scenes of Western life.

"The natural element in sculpture means allegorical thinking, symbol, sacredness, or the search for essences hidden in the material...The sculptor is a thinker and not a photographer of some ridiculous, multiform, and contradictory appearances."

Constantin Brancusi. Brancusi was most concerned with capturing the true essence of things. He was an avid follower of Plato, who believed that there is a world of Forms (higher realities) from which the world we see derives. He sought in his work to depict these Forms.

"Painting relates to both art and life. Neither can be made. (I try to act in the gap between the two.)"

Robert Rauschenberg. Rauschenberg greatly influenced pop artists, and is also known for his technological and social art.

"Anyone who has shown any concern with my work and has not been moved or inspired to become involved somehow or another with the humanities in a down-to-earth context... has not understood it basic import."

Joseph Cornell. Cornell's works are almost all box assemblages.