Flesh was the reason why oil painting was invented
Interpretation
The quote highlights the importance of human form in the evolution of oil painting.
Willem De Kooning's statement underscores the significance of the human body as a central theme in art, particularly oil painting. It suggests that the physicality and complexity of flesh inspired artists to develop and refine techniques in this medium, making the representation of the human figure a driving force behind artistic innovation and expression.
In practice
This quote could be used in an art class to discuss the evolution of painting techniques.
I paint the way I do because I can keep on putting more and more things in - like drama, pain, anger, love, a figure, a horse, my ideas of space. It doesn't matter if it differs from mine, as long as it comes from the painting, which has its own integrity and intensity.
The attitude that nature is chaotic and that the artist puts order into it is a very absurd point of view, I think. All that we can hope for is to put some order into ourselves.
I don't paint to live, I live to paint.
Spiritually I am wherever my spirit allows me to be, and that is not necessarily in the future... Art never seems to make me peaceful or pure.
Im not someone whos ever said anything definitive about his work. In my life also I have very little fixed form. I can change overnight.
Art should not have to be a certain way.
There is rarely a creative man who does not have to pay a high price for the divine spark of his greatest gifts... the human element is frequently bled for the benefit of the creative element and to such an extent that it even brings out the bad qualities, as for instance, ruthless, naive egoism (so-called "auto-eroticism"), vanity, all kinds of vices-and all this in order to bring to the human I at least some life-strength, since otherwise it would perish of sheer inanition.
I don't remember when exactly I read my first comic book, but I do remember exactly how liberated and subversive I felt as a result.
Fantasy is like jam. . . . You have to spread it on a solid piece of bread. If not, it remains a shapeless thing . . . out of which you canβt make anything.
The artist in his calling of interpreter creates because he must. He is so much of a voice that, for him, silence is like death
I'm no parasite. I'm a poet who will bring honor and glory to his country.
So now, from this mad passion Which made me take art for an idol and a king I have learnt the burden of error that it bore And what misfortune springs from man's desire... The world's frivolities have robbed me of the time That I was given for reflecting upon God.
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