The dissolution of the pictorial into sheer texture, into apparently sheer sensation, into an accumulation of repetitions, seems to speak for and answer something profound in contemporary sensibility. Clement Greenberg More Quotes by Clement Greenberg More Quotes From Clement Greenberg Where the Old Masters created an illusion of space into which one could imagine walking, the illusion created by a Modernist is one into which one can look, can travel through, only with the eye. Clement Greenberg eye travel art You like it, that's all, whether it's a landscape or abstract. You like it. It hits you. You don't have to read it. The work of art-sculpture or painting-forces your eye. Clement Greenberg sculpture eye art The peasant finds no "natural" urgency within himself that will drive him toward Picasso in spite of all difficulties. In the end the peasant will go back to kitsch when he feels like looking at pictures, for he can enjoy kitsch without effort Clement Greenberg kitsch effort natural All profoundly original art looks ugly at first. Clement Greenberg work looks art Where Picasso paints cause, Repin paints effect. Repin predigests art for the spectator and provides a short cut to the pleasure of art that is necessarily difficult in genuine art. Repin, or kitsch, is synthetic art. Clement Greenberg kitsch cutting art The art in photography is literary art before it is anything else: its triumphs and monuments are historical, anecdotal, reportorial, observational before they are purely pictorial... The photograph has to tell a story if it is to work as art. Clement Greenberg historical photography art Photography is the most transparent of the art mediums devised or discovered by man. It is probably for this reason that it proves so difficult to make the photograph transcend its almost inevitable function as document and act as a work of art as well. Clement Greenberg photography men art Realistic, naturalistic art had dissembled the medium, using art to conceal art; Modernism used art to call attention to art. Clement Greenberg realistic attention art The main trouble with avant-garde art and literature, from the point of view of fascists and Stalinists, is not that they are too critical, but that they are too "innocent," that it is too difficult to inject effective propaganda, that kitsch is more pliable to this end. Clement Greenberg avant-garde views art A poor life is lived by any one who doesn't regularly take time out to stand and gaze, or sit and listen, or touch, or smell, or brood, without any further end in mind, simply for the satisfaction gotten from what is gazed at, listened to, touched, smelled, or brooded upon. Clement Greenberg smell satisfaction mind Art is a matter strictly of experience, not of principles and what counts first and last in art is quality, all other things are secondary. Clement Greenberg quality principles art The difficulty of carrying on a leisure-oriented tradition of culture in a work-oriented society is enough in itself to keep the present crisis in our culture unresolved. Clement Greenberg carrying-on leisure culture If you want to change your art, change your habits. Clement Greenberg habit want art The reality of art is disclosed only in experience, not in reflection upon experience. Clement Greenberg reflection reality art Decoration is asked to be 'merely' pleasing, 'merely' embellishing, and the 'functional' logic of Modernism leaves no room, apparently, for such 'mereness.' This is part of the pity of Modernism, one of the sacrifices it enjoins. Clement Greenberg logic sacrifice rooms With an 'advanced' artist, it's not now possible to make a portrait. Clement Greenberg portraiture portraits artist When you don't like something the words come more readily. Clement Greenberg like-something It has become apparent that art can have a startling impact without really being or saying anything startling — or new. The character itself of being startling, spectacular, or upsetting has become conventionalized, part of safe good taste. Clement Greenberg impact character art The superior artist is the one who knows how to be influenced. Clement Greenberg strong-person influence artist Kitsch is Mechanical and operates by formulas. Clement Greenberg kitsch formulas
