When you stop doing something, it doesn't mean you are rejecting the previous work. That's the mistake; it's not rejecting it, it's saying, 'I have exploited it enough now and I wish to take a look at another corner.'
David HockneyRead
In fact, most artists want to make things a bit more difficult for themselves as they go along, to challenge themselves.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Artists often seek to push their boundaries and challenge themselves creatively.
David Hockney's quote emphasizes the idea that many artists intentionally create more complex challenges for themselves as they develop their craft. This pursuit of difficulty is seen as a way to foster growth, innovation, and a deeper understanding of their art, suggesting that true creativity often lies beyond comfort and familiarity.
Themes
ArtChallengeCreativityGrowthInnovation
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about artistic growth, this quote could inspire aspiring artists to take risks in their work.
More from David Hockney
All quotes βI'm interested in all kinds of pictures, however they are made, with cameras, with paint brushes, with computers, with anything.
David HockneyRead
I've always wanted to be able to paint the dawn.
David HockneyRead
My only worry is the painting I'm doing. Nothing else.
David HockneyRead
I can get excitement watching rain on a puddle. And then I paint it. Now, I admit, there are not too many people who would find that exciting. But I would. And I want life thrilling and rich. And it is. I make sure it is.
David HockneyRead
Cubism was an attack on the perspective that had been known and used for 500 years. It was the first big, big change. It confused people: they said, 'Things don't look like that!'
David HockneyRead
Similar quotes
Art is purposiveness without purpose.
Immanuel KantRead
We tend to think and feel in terms of the art we like; and if the art we like is bad then our thinking and feeling will be bad. And if the thinking and feeling of most of the individuals composing a society is bad, is not that society in danger?
Aldous HuxleyRead
If I don't write to empty my mind, I go mad. As to that regular, uninterrupted love of writing. I do not understand it. I feel it as a torture, which I must get rid of, but never as a pleasure. On the contrary, I think composition a great pain.
Lord ByronRead
One way we can enliven the imagination is to push it toward the illogical. We're not scientists. We don't always have to make the logical, reasonable leap.
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His talent was as natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly's wings. At one time he understood it no more than the butterfly did and he did not know when it was brushed or marred.
Ernest HemingwayRead
At the dressing table, every woman has a chance to be an artist, and art, as Aristotle said, 'completes what nature left unfinished.'
Sophia LorenRead