Agnes Martin Quotes

On this page you can find the TOP of Agnes Martin's best quotes! We hope you will find some sayings from Artist Agnes Martin's in our collection, which will inspire you to new achievements! There are currently 4 quotes on this page collected since March 22, 1912! Share our collection of quotes with your friends on social media so that they can find something to inspire them!
All quotes by Agnes Martin: Awareness Beauty Painting Perfection more...
  • 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.

    Art  
    Ned Rifkin, Agnes Martin, Edward Hirsch, Menil Collection (Houston, Tex.) (2002). “Agnès Martin: the nineties and beyond”, Hatje Cantz Pub
  • My paintings are not about what is seen. They are about what is known forever in the mind.

  • 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

  • I'm very careful not to have ideas, because they're inaccurate.

  • Of all the pitfalls in our paths and the tremendous delays and wanderings off the track, I want to say that they are not what they seem to be. I want to say that all that seems like fantastic mistakes are not mistakes, all that seems like error is not error; and it all has to be done. That which seems like a false step is the next step.

    Agnes Martin (2005). “Schriften”, Cantz
  • It's through discipline and tremendous disappointment and failure that you arrive at what it is you must paint.

  • It is commonly thought that everything that is can be put into words.

    Agnes Martin, Kunstmuseum Winterthur (1991). “Writings”
  • When I first made a grid I happened to be thinking of the innocence of trees and then this grid came into my mind and I thought it represented innocence, and I still do, and so I painted it and then I was satisfied. I thought, this is my vision.

    "Agnes Martin: the artist mystic who disappeared into the desert" by Olivia Laing, www.theguardian.com. May 22, 2015.
  • I paint with my back to the world

    Ned Rifkin, Agnes Martin, Edward Hirsch, Menil Collection (Houston, Tex.) (2002). “Agnès Martin: the nineties and beyond”, Hatje Cantz Pub
  • Fulfill your potential. That's the way to happiness.

  • There's nobody living who couldn't stand all afternoon in front of a waterfall .... Anyone who can sit on a stone in a field awhile can see my painting. Nature is like parting a curtain, you go into it .... as you would cross an empty beach to look at the ocean.

  • I want to emphasize the fact that we all have the same experience and the same concern, but the artist must know exactly what the experience is. He must pursue the truth relentlessly. Once he sees this fact his feet are on the path. If you want to know the truth you will know it. The manipulation of materials in an artwork is a result of this state of mind. The artist works by awareness of his own state of mind.

  • I once taught art to adults in a night course. I had a woman who painted her back yard, and she said it was the first time she had ever really looked at it. I think everyone sees beauty. Art is a way to respond

    Art   Thinking  
  • Happiness is being on the beam with life - to feel the pull of life

    Agnes Martin (2005). “Schriften”, Cantz
  • The adventurous state of mind is a high house... The joy of adventure is unaccountable. This is the attractiveness of artwork. It is adventurous, strenuous and joyful.

  • You can't make a perfect painting. We can see perfection in our minds. But we can't make a perfect painting.

    Art  
    Interview with Joan Simon, 1995.
  • 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.

    Art   Thinking  
  • 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.

  • Beauty and happiness and life are all the same and they are pervasive, unattached and abstract and they are our only concern. They are immeasurable, completely lacking in substance. They are perfect and sublime. This is the subject matter of art.

    Art  
    Agnes Martin (2005). “Schriften”, Cantz
  • 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.

  • I used to meditate until I learned to stop thinking.

  • I often paint tranquility. If you stop thinking and rest, then a little happiness comes into your mind. At perfect rest you are comfortable.

  • To progress in life you must give up the things you do not like. Give up doing the things that you do not like to do. You must find the things that you do like. The things that are acceptable to your mind.

    Agnes Martin (2005). “Schriften”, Cantz
  • Beauty is the mystery of life. It is not in the eye, it is in the mind.

    Agnes Martin, Heinz Liesbrock, Josef-Albers-Museum (2004). “Agnes Martin: the islands”, Richter Verlag
  • When you look in your mind you find it covered with a lot of rubbishy thoughts. You have to penetrate these and hear what your mind is telling you to do. Such work is original work.

    Agnes Martin, Kunstmuseum Winterthur (1991). “Writings”
  • The worst thing you can think about when you're working is yourself.

  • 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

    Agnes Martin, Lawrence Alloway (1973). “Agnes Martin: Exhibition January 22 to March 1, 1973”
  • Inspiration is there all the time. For everyone whose mind is not clouded over with thoughts whether they realize it or not.

    Agnes Martin, Lawrence Alloway, University of Pennsylvania. Institute of Contemporary Art (1973). “Agnes Martin: exhibition January 22 to March 1, 1973”
  • 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.

    Agnes Martin (2005). “Schriften”, Cantz
  • Doing what you were born to do … That's the way to be happy.

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We hope you have found the saying you were looking for in our collection! At the moment, we have collected 4 quotes from the Artist Agnes Martin, starting from March 22, 1912! We periodically replenish our collection so that visitors of our website can always find inspirational quotes by authors from all over the world! Come back to us again!
Agnes Martin quotes about: Awareness Beauty Painting Perfection