Traditionally art is to create and not to revive. To revive: leave that to the historians, who are looking backward.
Interpretation
Art should focus on creation rather than attempting to recreate or revive past works.
In this quote, Josef Albers emphasizes the importance of originality in art. He suggests that true artistic expression lies in the act of creation, while historians play a vital role in preserving and reflecting on the past. By urging artists to look forward rather than backward, Albers champions innovation and the continual evolution of artistic expression.
In practice
During a lecture on modern art, you can use this quote to highlight the importance of artistic creativity.
Simultaneous contrast is not just a curious optical phenomenon β it is the very heart of painting. Repeated experiments with adjacent colors will show that any ground subtracts its own hue from the colors which it carries and therefore influences.
Instead of art I have taught philosophy. Though technique for me is a big word, I never have taught how to paint. All my doing was to make people to see.
When we are honest - that's my saying - if we are honest then we will reveal ourselves. But we do not have to make an effort to be individualistic, different from others.
Ah, the creative process is the same secret in science as it is in art. They are all the same absolutely.
In order to use color effectively it is necessary to recognize that color deceives continually.
The aim of our studies is to prove that color is the most relative means of artistic expression, that we never really perceive what color is physically.
That sculpture is more admirable than painting for the reason that it contains relief and painting does not is completely false. ... Rather, how much more admirable the painting must be considered, if having no relief at all, it appears to have as much as sculpture!
My place in design history is to sort of interpret youth culture, and I think we've seen that done in fashion before - it's not a new concept - but it hasn't been done with the same vigour in a modern context.
Didn't you tie the mittens on her feet (Wednesday Evening's) extra special nice? Yes--she is an extra special nice pigeon. She cries for pity when she wants pity. And she shuts her eyes when she doesn't want to look at you. And if you look deep in her eyes when her eyes are open you will see lights there exactly like the lights on the pastures and the meadows when the mist is drifting on a Wednesday evening just between the twilight and gloaming.
Music is the tonal reflection of beauty.
The body cannot lie. You cannot be somebody else onstage, no matter how good of an actor or dancer or singer you are. When you open your arms, move your finger, the audience knows who you are, you know.
I see myself as a perennial expatriate because, frankly, I don't think I fit comfortably in any conventional form of filmmaking, and I feel at the same time, depending on the project, I fit into many different ones.
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