"The enormous pitfall is devotion to oneself instead of to life. All works that are self-devoted are absolutely ineffective."
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Quote collection
Agnes Martin quotes (page 2 of 2)
39 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"The worst thing you can think about when you're working is yourself."
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"It would be an endless battle if it were all up to ego because it does not destroy and is not destroyed by itself It is like a wave it makes itself up, it rushes forward getting nowhere really it crashes, withdraws and makes itself up again pulls itself together with pride towers with pride rushes forward into imaginary conquest crashes in frustration withdraws with remorse and repentance pulls itself together with new resolution"
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"My paintings are certainly nonobjective. They're just horizontal lines. There's not any hint of nature. And still everybody responds, I think."
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"Happiness is being on the beam with life - to feel the pull of life"
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"Anything can be painted without representation."
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"I think our minds respond to things beyond this world. Take beauty: it's a very mysterious thing, isn't it? I think it's a response in our minds to perfection. It's too bad, people not realizing that their minds expand beyond this world."
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"Fulfill your potential. That's the way to happiness."
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"I paint with my back to the world"
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"It is commonly thought that everything that is can be put into words."
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"I used to meditate until I learned to stop thinking."
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"I hope I have made it clear that the work is about perfection as we are aware of it in our minds but that the paintings are very far from being perfect - completely removed in fact - even as we ourselves are."
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"Any material may be used but the theme is the same and the response is the same for all artwork... we all have the same concern, but the artist must know exactly what the experience is. He must pursue the truth relentlessly"
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"I would like my work to be recognized as being in the classical tradition (Coptic, Egyptian, Greek, Chinese), as representing the Ideal in the mind. Classical art cannot possibly be eclectic. One must see the ideal in one's own mind. It is like a memory - an awareness -of perfection."
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"Pollock was terrific. I think he freed himself of all kinds of worry about this world. Ran around and dripped, and then he managed to express ecstasy."
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"What we really want to do is serve happiness. We want everyone to be happy, never unhappy even for a moment. We want the animals to be happy. The happiness of every living thing is what we want."
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"You can't make a perfect painting. We can see perfection in our minds. But we can't make a perfect painting."
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"The Minimalists are idealist. They want to minimise themselves in favour of the ideal. But I just can't. You see, my paintings are not cool. ... I'm very careful not to have ideas, because they're inaccurate."
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"What I say is that we're capable of a transcendent response, and I think it makes us happy. And I do think beauty produces a transcendent response."
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