Art teachers are always the doormats of the previous generation. Peter Schjeldahl More Quotes by Peter Schjeldahl More Quotes From Peter Schjeldahl What I want to know from students, and I ask them right away, is, 'What do you want? I don't care what it is. I want to help you get it. Peter Schjeldahl care want desire Picasso had nicknamed Georges Braque "Wilbur," thereby becoming "Orville" in their Wright Brothers-like ambition to get painting off the ground of conventional representation. Peter Schjeldahl becoming ambition brother There is an ineffable but fatal difference in attitude between people behaving naturally and people behaving naturally for a camera. Peter Schjeldahl differences attitude people A word is a thought, of course. But any image, including a photograph, may become an instrument of sufficiently lucid cogitation. Peter Schjeldahl instruments photograph may With art criticism it's difficult to discuss beauty, to assess it, because there's always the possibility that we're insane. Peter Schjeldahl insane criticism art Rembrandt was way ahead of his time. It's as if he was painting an amateur theatrical, or a professional theatrical, in his studio. It's a kind of performance. Peter Schjeldahl painting kind way Your medium has to be alive to you, no matter what you do. Peter Schjeldahl no-matter-what alive matter I have painted enough to have a lot of respect for mediocre painters. It's really hard. Peter Schjeldahl painter mediocre enough I have a total responsibility to the reader. The reader has to trust me and never feel betrayed. Peter Schjeldahl trust-me betrayed responsibility There's a double standard between writers and readers. Readers can be unfaithful to writers anytime they like, but writers must never ever be unfaithful to the readers. Peter Schjeldahl double-standard unfaithful standards It's my duty to sell the ideas. But there's always a question when it comes to beauty. Peter Schjeldahl sells duty ideas Beauty is a physiological reaction. Beauty is not an object. Peter Schjeldahl physiological reactions objects There's art that I would readily buy if I could afford it, and enjoy, but would never write about because it doesn't seem significant. Peter Schjeldahl significant writing art Artists are sometimes in a position to tell the truth, but they're positioned as a Cassandra. They're gifted with impeccable prophecy and the assurance of never being listened to. Peter Schjeldahl telling-the-truth artist sometimes Smithson was someone of tremendous significance whose work was not beautiful at all. I think he was an iconoclast. Peter Schjeldahl significance beautiful thinking For Rembrandt, reality is role-playing.... Everyone is portrayed in relation to a social hierarchy. Peter Schjeldahl role-playing roles reality Minimalism itself had a very strong iconoclast impulse. You think of the sixties as loose and liberated, but in art it was actually quite the contrary. Peter Schjeldahl strong art thinking Artists are expected to talk about their work but writers aren't expected to talk about their writing. Peter Schjeldahl expected artist writing I'm absolutely convinced that people cannot look and read at the same time. Not any more than you can kneel and jump at the same time. It's a completely different physiological setting. Peter Schjeldahl different people looks Comic books, graphic novels, involve constant toggling and it's hard work. You get tired reading comic books, but you never get tired looking at pictures or reading words. Peter Schjeldahl hard-work reading book
