I cannot say why I wanted to paint. The only answer is in the pictures themselves. Oskar Kokoschka More Quotes by Oskar Kokoschka More Quotes From Oskar Kokoschka True dreams and visions should be as visible to the artist as the phenomena of the objective world. Oskar Kokoschka vision artist dream Open your eyes at last and see... now I will open the book of the world for you,there are no words in it, just pictures. Oskar Kokoschka eye book world All that's left now is purely poetic work, putting more life into individual places, as I've made so sure of the fundamental mood and dimension of expression that it won't leave me groping around in uncertainty any more. Oskar Kokoschka dimensions expression fundamentals I try to keep my sitters moving and talking, to make them forget they are being painted. This has nothing to do with extracting intimate secrets or confessions, but rather with establishing, in motion, an essential image of the kind that remains in memory or recurs in dreams. Oskar Kokoschka dream memories moving However ugly a face may be, we can discover some beauty in it if we first experience wonder before it and then begin to understand it, too. Oskar Kokoschka ugly faces may How do I define a work of art? It is not an asset in the stock-exchange sense, but a man's timid attempt to repeat the miracle that the simplest peasant girl is capable of at any time, that of magically producing life out of nothing. Oskar Kokoschka girl men art Consciousness is a sea ringed with visions. Oskar Kokoschka vision consciousness sea The life of the consciousness is boundless. It interpenetrates the world and is woven in all its imagery. Therefore, we must listen closely to our inner voice. Oskar Kokoschka intuition woven voice I used to be too subjective, and I was always tempted to find my inner self in the exterior and dissipate my imagination on other people and on life. Oskar Kokoschka imagination self people The awareness of imagery is part of living... a life which derives its power from within itself will focus on the perception... of images. Oskar Kokoschka focus awareness perception I consider myself responsible to the coming generations, which are left stranded in a blitzed world, unaware of the soul trembling in awe before the mystery of life. Oskar Kokoschka generations soul responsibility Consciousness is the grave of things, the place where they cease to exist, beyond which they end. And when they have ended, it seems that they no longer have any essential existence except in the visions in me. Oskar Kokoschka vision essentials consciousness The most fundamental in me is coming uppermost, and the transient, the sensational, is dispersing, because it can't adversely influence what is essential to me. Oskar Kokoschka essentials influence fundamentals There is no such thing as a German, French, or Anglo-American Expressionism! There are only young people trying to find their bearings in the world. Oskar Kokoschka find trying people world Intellectually, I am already an old man. But in the sensory area, I am still such a child! I shuffle on my bottom between the two. Oskar Kokoschka i-am child man old-man
