Very quickly a painting is turned into a facsimile of itself when one becomes so familiar with with it that one recognizes it without looking at it.
Robert RauschenbergRead
I usually work in a direction until I know how to do it, then I stop. At the time that I am bored or understand - I use those words interchangeably - another appetite has formed. A lot of people try to think up ideas. I'm not one. I'd rather accept the irresistible possibilities of what I can't ignore.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of pursuing passion and creativity until it naturally evolves into something new.
Robert Rauschenberg highlights his creative process, indicating that he immerses himself in his work until he reaches a point of either boredom or understanding, at which point he allows his curiosity to lead him to new ideas. Instead of forcing creativity or trying to think up concepts, he prefers to embrace the opportunities that present themselves when he is truly engaged and inspired by his work.
Themes
CreativityArtInspirationProcessCuriosity
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about artistic inspiration during a gallery talk.
More from Robert Rauschenberg
All quotes →I never allowed myself the luxury of those brilliant, beautiful colors until I went to India and saw people walking around in them or dragging them in the mud. I realised they were not so artificial.
Robert RauschenbergRead
I'm not so facile that I can accomplish or find out what I want to know or explore enough of the possibilities and a way of making a painting, say, in just one painting or two paintings.
Robert RauschenbergRead
My art is about paying attention - about the extremely dangerous possibility that you might be art.
Robert RauschenbergRead
The artist's job is to be a witness to his time in history.
Robert RauschenbergRead
There was a whole language that I could never make function for myself in relationship to painting, and that was attitudes like tortured, struggle, pain.
Robert RauschenbergRead
Similar quotes
What's important in the filmmaking process has stayed the same. Keep it small, keep it personal, keep it authentic, work with people you like and trust. That process is much longer than the filmmaking process. The development process is a long one, so try and say something of importance.
Simon BeaufoyRead
I like ruins because what remains is not the total design, but the clarity of thought, the naked structure, the spirit of the thing.
Tadao AndoRead
I knew nothing about the technique of story writing, and now, after eighteen years of writing, I still know nothing about the technique, although with the publication of my new novel, Tarzan and the Lost Empire, there are 31 books on my list.
Edgar Rice BurroughsRead
The listener must be gripped and whether he likes it or not, drawn into the flight path of the sounds without special training being necessary. The sensual shock must be just as forceful as when one hears a clap of thunder or looks into a bottomless abyss
Iannis XenakisRead
When I paint a person, his enemies always find the portrait a good likeness.
Edvard MunchRead
Jazz, to me, is one of the inherent expressions of Negro life in America: the eternal tom-tom beating in the Negro soul - the tom-tom of revolt against weariness in a white world, a world of subway trains, and work, work, work; the tom-tom of joy and laughter, and pain swallowed in a smile.
Langston HughesRead