A visual experience is vitalizing. Whereas to write great poetry, to draw continuously on one's inner life, is not merely exhausting, it is to keep alight a consuming fire. Kenneth Clark More Quotes by Kenneth Clark More Quotes From Kenneth Clark All great civilisations, in their early stages, are based on success in war. Kenneth Clark stage war peace Leonardo is the Hamlet of art history whom each of us must recreate for himself. Kenneth Clark art-history leonardo art Devotion to the facts will always give the pleasures of recognition; adherence to the rules of design, the pleasures of order and certainty. Kenneth Clark design giving order The nude gains its enduring value from the fact that it reconciles several contrary states. It takes the most sensual and immediately interesting object, the human body, and puts it out of reach of time and desire; it takes the most purely rational concept of which mankind is capable, mathematical order, and makes it a delight to the senses; and it takes the vague fears of the unknown and sweetens them by showing that the gods are like men and may be worshiped for their life-giving beauty rather than their death-dealing powers. Kenneth Clark giving men order Changes in the structure of society are not brought about solely by massive engines of doctrine. The first flash of insight which persuades human beings to change their basic assumptions is usually contained in a few phrases. Kenneth Clark doctrine phrases firsts We can hardly imagine a state of mind in which all material objects were regarded as symbols of spirtual truths or episodes in sacred history. Yet, unless we make this effort of imagination, Medieval art is largely incomprehensible. Kenneth Clark effort imagination art Few people can look at a painting longer than it takes to peel an orange and eat it. Kenneth Clark orange people looks I just don't think the moon is going to be an adequate substitute for the fact that we haven't addressed ourselves to clearing up the slums. Kenneth Clark space moon thinking The great artist takes what he needs. Kenneth Clark great-art artist needs The great achievement of the Catholic Church lay in harmonizing, civilizing the deepest impulses of ordinary, ignorant people. Kenneth Clark achievement catholic people Ruthless, greedy, tyrannical, disreputable... they have had one principle worth all the rest, the principle of delight! Kenneth Clark greedy delight principles Fine colour implies a unified relationship, in which each part is subordinate to the whole, and the transitions between them are felt to be as precious and beautiful as the colours themselves. In fact, the colours themselves must be continuously modified and broken as part of the transition. Kenneth Clark transition broken beautiful It would be unfair to say that I prefer the back of a book to its contents, but it is true that the sight of a lot of books gives me the hope that I may some day read them, which sometimes develops into the belief that I have read them. Kenneth Clark sight giving book Just as a classical dancer repeats the same movements again and again, in order to achieve a greater perfection of line and balance, so Degas repeats the same motifs - it was one of the things that gave him so much sympathy with dancers. Kenneth Clark dancer perfection order You have no idea what portrait painters suffer from the vanity of their sitters. Kenneth Clark vanity suffering ideas Only the bad artists of the nineteenth century were frightened by the invention of photography; the good ones all welcomed it and used it. Kenneth Clark invention photography artist The difference between what we see and a sheet of white paper with a few thin lines on it is very great. Yet this abstraction is one which we seem to have adopted almost instinctively at an early stage in our development, not only in Neolithic graffiti but in early Egyptian drawings. And in spite of its abstract character, the outline is responsive to the least tremor of sensibility. Kenneth Clark drawing white character I believe that in spite of the recent triumphs of science, men haven't changed much in the last two thousand years; and in consequence we must still try to learn from history. History is ourselves. Kenneth Clark men believe years I believe in the God-given genius of certain individuals, and I value a society that makes their existence possible. Kenneth Clark individual genius believe Energy is eternal delight; and from the earliest times human beings have tried to imprison it in some durable hieroglyphic. It is perhaps the first of all the subjects of art. Kenneth Clark delight energy art
