Art is much less important than life, but what a poor life without it.
Interpretation
Art enhances life, making it richer and more fulfilling.
Robert Motherwell's quote emphasizes the significance of art in our lives, suggesting that while art may not be the most critical aspect of existence, life would be lacking and less meaningful without the presence of creativity and artistic expression. It highlights the essential role of art in enriching human experiences and emotions.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of community, you might say, 'As Robert Motherwell noted, art is much less important than life, but what a poor life without it.'
A main part of the struggle of art has been to make an art that is direct, simple, humane, unconnected with powers that be in their essence... To the degree that it is connected with the bourgeoisie via the marketplace and so on is not necessarily an artist's problem.
To end up with a canvas that is no less beautiful than the empty canvas is to begin with.
It's not that the creative act and the critical act are simultaneous. It's more like you blurt something out and then analyze it.
Art is an experience, not an object.
After playing Chopin, I feel as if I had been weeping over sins that I had never committed, and mourning over tragedies that were not my own. Music always seems to me to produce that effect. It creates for one a past of which one has been ignorant, and fills one with a sense of sorrows that have been hidden from oneβs tears.
Never play a thing the same way twice.
Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion.
I watch people who are not driven by creativity any more, and I think how dull it must be to produce the same kind of thing. If you don't feel you're reaching something new, then don't do it.
Dedication: My thanks to the people who showed me that opera was stranger than I could imagine. I can best repay their kindness by not mentioning their names here.
Designing is a matter of concentration. You go deep into what you want to do. It's about intensive research, really. The concentration is warm and intimate and like the fire inside the earth - intense but not distorted. You can go to a place, really feel it in your heart. It's actually a beautiful feeling.
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