WILLIAM MORRIS

"You can't have art without resistance in the material."

- William Morris


Source: William Morris quoted in: Kosuth, Joseph. The Mind's Image of Itself. 2011. Frieze , issue 141, september 2011. pp. 149-157. 

"So long, Marcel. Well, that's over. It has been a truism of the past 100 years, since marcel Duchamp re-presented an everyday object as a work of art, that the most interesting, the most relevant, the most advanced art grappled with its place in the world and as a part of that world, whether on the level of intention or consumption. 2010 was the year when the most visible, talked about, written of, bought and sold contemporary art took flight from the viscissitudes of the everyday, and definitely separated itself from the urgencies of life on this planet."

- Laura Hoptman, curator in the Department of Painting and Drawings, MoMa, New York, U.S.A, quoted in Frieze Art Magazine.

Source: Laura Hoptman in Looking Back/Looking Forward. Frieze. Issue 136, january-February 2011. p. 89.

"The potential of the white cube is now in the tension implied by a space outside society that can be subverted or misused by artists wanting to engage in the world"

- Charles Esche in MJ - Manifesta Journal N°1.

Source: Interview with Charles Esche in ch. "Whiteness & Cubicalism" in Zabel, Igor and Viktor Misiano (eds). 2008. MJ - Manifesta Journal. N°1, Spring / Summer 2003 : journal of contemporary curatorship : the revenge of the white cube? ; MJ - Manifesta Journal. N°2, Winter 2003 / Spring 2004 : biennials ; MJ - Manifesta Journal. N°3, Spring / Summer 2004 : exhibition as a dream. Milano: Silvana 2008. ISBN 8836611982.

"Art is still conditioned by the possibility that one thing might just be more important then other things. Otherwise, we are dealing with a uniformity of difference, which exclaims, like a high-school girl in a cartoon: "Daddy, I want to be different just like everybody else!"

- Branislav Dimitrijević in MJ - Manifesta Journal N°1.

Source: Interview with Branislav Dimitrijević in ch. "Whiteness & Cubicalism" in Zabel, Igor and Viktor Misiano (eds). 2008. MJ - Manifesta Journal. N°1, Spring / Summer 2003 : journal of contemporary curatorship : the revenge of the white cube? ; MJ - Manifesta Journal. N°2, Winter 2003 / Spring 2004 : biennials ; MJ - Manifesta Journal. N°3, Spring / Summer 2004 : exhibition as a dream. Milano: Silvana 2008. ISBN 8836611982.

"The white cube can no longer be used for critical art, but it is the notion of "critical art" that is in crisis, not the white cube. Therefore the strategy is to go not only beyond the myth and ideology of the white cube but also beyond the myth and ideology of the denigration of the white cube"

- Branislav Dimitrijević in MJ - Manifesta Journal N°1.

Source: Interview with Branislav Dimitrijević in ch. "Whiteness & Cubicalism" in Zabel, Igor and Viktor Misiano (eds). 2008. MJ - Manifesta Journal. N°1, Spring / Summer 2003 : journal of contemporary curatorship : the revenge of the white cube? ; MJ - Manifesta Journal. N°2, Winter 2003 / Spring 2004 : biennials ; MJ - Manifesta Journal. N°3, Spring / Summer 2004 : exhibition as a dream. Milano: Silvana 2008. ISBN 8836611982.

"The luxurious status of "whiteness" and "cubicalism" is more important than the space itself; it is a symbol of the status of art"

- Lara Boubnova in MJ - Manifesta Journal N°1.

Source: Lara Boubnova interviewed in chapter "Whiteness & Cubicalism" in Zabel, Igor and Viktor Misiano (eds). 2008. MJ - Manifesta Journal. N°1, Spring / Summer 2003 : journal of contemporary curatorship : the revenge of the white cube? ; MJ - Manifesta Journal. N°2, Winter 2003 / Spring 2004 : biennials ; MJ - Manifesta Journal. N°3, Spring / Summer 2004 : exhibition as a dream. Milano: Silvana 2008. ISBN 8836611982.

"On the one hand, the white cube space serves as a venue for the most radical technological experiments. On the other, it is definitely a venue for commercial presentations, a space for trade. In the first case (...), the form and the space is important only as a neutral and non-intervening surface, a tabula rasa. In the second case, the luxurious status of "whiteness" and "cubicalism" is more important than the space itself; it is a symbol of the status of art"

- Lara Boubnova in MJ - Manifesta Journal N°1.

Source: Lara Boubnova interviewed in chapter "Whiteness & Cubicalism" in Zabel, Igor and Viktor Misiano (eds). 2008. MJ - Manifesta Journal. N°1, Spring / Summer 2003 : journal of contemporary curatorship : the revenge of the white cube? ; MJ - Manifesta Journal. N°2, Winter 2003 / Spring 2004 : biennials ; MJ - Manifesta Journal. N°3, Spring / Summer 2004 : exhibition as a dream. Milano: Silvana 2008. ISBN 8836611982.

"If we wish to understand and appreciate formal beauty we must learn to see in a detailed way. We must concentrate on the details, on the form of the roof of a tree, on the way in which a leaf is connected to its stalk, on the structure of the bark, on the lines made by the turbid spray on the shores of a lake. Also we must not just glance carelessly at the form. Our eye must trace, minutely, every curve, every twist, every thickening, every contraction, in short we must experience every nuance in the form. For there is only one point in our field of vision which we can see exactly, and it is only that which is clearly seen, which can hold some meaning for us. If we see in this way, an immensely rich new world is revealed to us, full of totally new experience. A thousand sensations are awakened within us. New feeling and shades of feeling, continual unexpected transformations. Nature seems to live and we begin to understand that there really are sorrowing trees and wicked treacherous branches, virginal grasses and terrible, gruesome flowers. Of course, not everything is going to affect us in this way, there are also things which are boring, meaningless and ineffectual, but the alert eye will everywhere observe forms of superb, soul-shattering magnificence.

This is the power of form upon the mind, a direct immidiate influence without any intermediary stage, by no means an anthropomorphic effect, but one of direct empathy. If we speak of a sorrowing tree, we do not at all think of the tree as a living being which sorrows, but mean only that it awakens the feeling of sorrow within us. (...) We are employing nothing more than a verbal aid to make up for an inadequate vocabulary and to produce a living concept more quickly."

- August Endell (1871-1925) in "The Beauty of Form and Decorative Art" .

Source: Endell, August. 1897-8. "The Beauty of Form and Decorative Art", in Dekorative Kunst, I, Munich, 1897-8, pp. 75-7, 119-25; Translation by T. and C. Benton and D. Sharp (eds.), Form and Function, London, 1975. Printed in: Harrison & Wood (ed). Art in Theory. 1900-2000. An Anthology Of Changing Ideas. pp. 59-61. Malden: Blackwell Publishing. Also available from URL: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=SWu4SB92fHMC&q=collingwood#v=snippet&q=endell&f=false

"Appreciation of visual form is also something that must be aquired. We must learn to see it and really immerse ourselves in form. We must discover how to use our eyes"

- August Endell (1871-1925) in "The Beauty of Form and Decorative Art" .

Source: Endell, August. 1897-8. "The Beauty of Form and Decorative Art", in Dekorative Kunst, I, Munich, 1897-8, pp. 75-7, 119-25; Translation by T. and C. Benton and D. Sharp (eds.), Form and Function, London, 1975. Printed in: Harrison & Wood (ed). Art in Theory. 1900-2000. An Anthology Of Changing Ideas. pp. 59-61. Malden: Blackwell Publishing. Also available from URL: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=SWu4SB92fHMC&q=collingwood#v=snippet&q=endell&f=false

"(...) the dissonant warning voices of the cautious can be heard. From the dizzy heights of their experience, they smile down sypathetically upon the foolish exploits of their juniors and still remain ready to show to the general public the only path of truth. They teach us that there can be no new form, that all possibilities have been exhausted in the styles of the past, and that all art lies in an individually modified use of old forms."

- August Endell (1871-1925) in "The Beauty of Form and Decorative Art" .

Source: Endell, August. 1897-8. "The Beauty of Form and Decorative Art", in Dekorative Kunst, I, Munich, 1897-8, pp. 75-7, 119-25; Translation by T. and C. Benton and D. Sharp (eds.), Form and Function, London, 1975. Printed in: Harrison & Wood (ed). Art in Theory. 1900-2000. An Anthology Of Changing Ideas. pp. 59-61. Malden: Blackwell Publishing. Also available from URL: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=SWu4SB92fHMC&q=collingwood#v=snippet&q=endell&f=false

"Art is a state of encounter "

- Nicolas Bourriaud in Esthétique Relationelle, 1998.

Source: Bourriaud, Nicolas. 2002. Relational Aesthetics. Les presses du réel. p.18. translation by Simon Pleasance & Fronza Woods with the participation of Mathieu Copeland. ISBN2-84066-060-1

"This is a society where human relations are no longer 'directly experienced', but start to become blurred in their 'spectacular' representation. Herein lies the most burning issue to do with art today: is it still possible to generate relationships with the world, in a practical field art history traditionally earmarked for their 'representation' "

- Nicolas Bourriaud in Esthétique Relationelle, 1998.

Source: Bourriaud, Nicolas. 2002. Relational Aesthetics. Les presses du réel. p.9. translation by Simon Pleasance & Fronza Woods with the participation of Mathieu Copeland. ISBN2-84066-060-1

"Curiosity has become a fatal, irresistible passion!"

- Charles Baudelaire, writing in favour of "Monsieur C.G" (Constantin Guys, 1802-92)

Source: Baudelaire, Charles. 1859. Originally printed in essay "Le Peintre de la Vie Moderne". Le Figaro, Paris, 26 & 28 November and 3 December 1863. Translation by Jonathan Mayne (ed). 1964. The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays. In Chapter: III - The Artist, Man of the World, Man of the Crowd, and Child. London: Phaidon Press. p.7. Available online from http://www.columbia.edu/itc/architecture/ockman/pdfs/dossier_4/Baudelaire.pdf [Downloaded 2010-05-26].

"It was not precisely as an artist, but rather with a man of the world with whom I had to do. I ask you to understand the word artist in a very restricted sense, a man of the world in a very broad one. By the second i mean a man of the whole world, a man who understands the world and the mysterious and lawful reasons for all its uses; by the first, a specialist, a man wedded to his palette like the serf to the soil. Monsieur G. does not like to be called an artist. Is he not perhaps a little right? His interests is the whole world; he wants to know, understand and appreciate everything that happens on the surface of our globe. The artist lives very little, if at all, in the world of morals and politics. If he lives in the Bréda district, he will be unaware of what is going on in the Faubourg Saint-Germain. (...) the majority of artists are no more than highly skilled animals, pure artisans, village intellects, cottage brains. Their conversation, which is necessarily limited to the narrowest of circles, becomes very quickly unbearable to the man of the world, to the spiritual citizen of the universe."

- Charles Baudelaire, writing in favour of "Monsieur C.G" (Constantin Guys, 1802-92)

Source: Baudelaire, Charles. 1859. Originally printed in essay "Le Peintre de la Vie Moderne". Le Figaro, Paris, 26 & 28 November and 3 December 1863. Translation by Jonathan Mayne (ed). 1964. The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays. In Chapter: III - The Artist, Man of the World, Man of the Crowd, and Child. London: Phaidon Press. p.6-7. Available online from http://www.columbia.edu/itc/architecture/ockman/pdfs/dossier_4/Baudelaire.pdf [Downloaded 2010-05-26].

"Not a single one of his drawings is signed, if by signature you mean that string of easily forgeable characters which spell a name and which so many other artists affix ostentatiously at the foot of their least important trifles. Yet all his works are signed - with his dazzling soul"

- Charles Baudelaire, writing in favour of "Monsieur C.G" (Constantin Guys, 1802-92)

Source: Baudelaire, Charles. 1859. Originally printed in essay "Le Peintre de la Vie Moderne". Le Figaro, Paris, 26 & 28 November and 3 December 1863. Translation by Jonathan Mayne (ed). 1964. The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays. In Chapter: III - The Artist, Man of the World, Man of the Crowd, and Child. London: Phaidon Press. p.5. Available online from http://www.columbia.edu/itc/architecture/ockman/pdfs/dossier_4/Baudelaire.pdf [Downloaded 2010-05-26].

"This is in fact an excellent opportunity to establish a rational and historical theory of beauty, in contrast to the academic theory of an unique and absolute beauty; to show that beauty is always and inevitably of a double composition (...) Beauty is made up of an eternal, invariable element, whose quantity it is excessively difficult to determine, and of a relative, circumstantial element, which will be, if you like, whether severally or all at once, the age, its fashions, its morals, its emotions. (...) The duality of art is a fatal consequence of the duality of man. Consider, if you will, the eternally subsisting portion as the soul of art, and the variable element as its body."

- Charles Baudelaire

Source: Baudelaire, Charles. 1859. Originally printed in essay "Le Peintre de la Vie Moderne". Le Figaro, Paris, 26 & 28 November and 3 December 1863. Translation by Jonathan Mayne (ed). 1964. The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays. In Chapter: Beauty, Fashion and Happiness. London: Phaidon Press. p.3. Available online from http://www.columbia.edu/itc/architecture/ockman/pdfs/dossier_4/Baudelaire.pdf [Downloaded 2010-05-26].

"My concern today is with the painting of manners of the present. The past is interesting not only by reason of the beauty which could be distilled from it by those artists for whom it was the present, but also precisely because it is the past, for its historical value. It is the same with the present. The pleasure which we derive from the representation of the present is due not only to the beauty with which it can be invested, but also to its essential quality of being present"

- Charles Baudelaire

Source: Baudelaire, Charles. 1859. Originally printed in essay "Le Peintre de la Vie Moderne". Le Figaro, Paris, 26 & 28 November and 3 December 1863. Translation by Jonathan Mayne (ed). 1964. The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays. In Chapter: Beauty, Fashion and Happiness. London: Phaidon Press. p.1. Available online from http://www.columbia.edu/itc/architecture/ockman/pdfs/dossier_4/Baudelaire.pdf [Downloaded 2010-05-26].

"The world - and even the world of artists - is full of people who can go to the Louvre, walk rapidly, without so much as a glance, past rows of very interesting, though secondary, pictures, to come to a rapturous halt in front of a Titian or a Raphael - one of those that have been most popularized by the engraver's art; then they will go home happy, not a few saying to themselves, 'I know my Museum.' Just as there are people who, having once read Bossuet and Racine, fancy that they have mastered the history of literature.

Fortunately from time to time there comes forward righters of wrong, critics, amateurs, curious enquirers, to declare that Raphael, or Racine, does not contain the whole secret, and that the minor poets too have something good, solid and delightful to offer; and finally that however much we may love general beauty, as it is expressed by classical poets and artists, we are no less wrong to neglect particular beauty, the beauty of circumstance and the sketch of manners"

- Charles Baudelaire

Source: Baudelaire, Charles. 1859. Originally printed in essay "Le Peintre de la Vie Moderne". Le Figaro, Paris, 26 & 28 November and 3 December 1863. Translation by Jonathan Mayne (ed). 1964. The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays. In Chapter: Beauty, Fashion and Happiness. London: Phaidon Press. p.1. Available online from http://www.columbia.edu/itc/architecture/ockman/pdfs/dossier_4/Baudelaire.pdf [Downloaded 2010-05-26].

"The artist is the most important origin of a work, but the hands through which it passes are essential to the way in which it accrues value"

- Sarah Thornton

Source: Thornton, Sarah. Seven Days in the Art World. 2008. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-393-06722-4. pp. 10.

"Even the most businesslike dealers will tell you that making money should be a byoproduct of art, not an artist's main goal. Art needs motives that are more profound than profit if is is to maintain its difference from - and position above - other cultural forms"

- Sarah Thornton

Source: Thornton, Sarah. Seven Days in the Art World. 2008. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-393-06722-4. pp. xvi-xvii.