Art as gift: some quotes
“That art that matters to us – which moves the heart, or revives the soul, or delights the senses, or offers courage for living, however we choose to describe the experience – that work is received by us as a gift is received”
Lewis Hyde “The Gift: How The Creative Spirit Transforms The World”
“When it comes to being influenced by the work of others, on experiences, maybe only five or six times during a lifetime, the incredible feeling that illuminates and enlightens your own existence. It might happen while reading a text, listening to a piece of music, watching a film, or looking at a painting.. and sometimes – even if centuries are being bridged – you find a brother and instantly know that you are no longer alone” Werner Herzog
“Always, after even half an hour in the presence of a painting or two by Prunella, your consciousness seems suddenly attuned to certain realities which immediately become overwhelmingly visually available to you as you walk away down the pavement – any pavement. The gritty greys of West London brickwork; the rectilinear grid of the mortar separating each brick … the regular rows of punched-out holes in an old metal grille at your feet; the sudden surprisingly organic irregularity of seven blades of grass erupting in the crack between two paving stones…” Patrick Heron
“…when I got into making stacks…I wanted to do a show that would disappear completely. It had a lot to do with disappearance and learning. It was also about trying to be a threat to the art-marketing system, and also, to be really honest, it was about being generous to a certain extent. I wanted people to have my work. The fact that someone could just come and take my work and carry it with them was very exciting” Felix Gonzalez-Torres
“We all suffer alone in the real world; true empathy’s impossible. But if a piece of fiction can allow us imaginatively to identify with a character’s pain, we might then also more easily conceive of others identifying with our own. This is nourishing, redemptive; we become less alone inside ” David Foster Wallace
