InspiringQuotes

Alex Katz Quotes:

Alex Katz quotes

Ocupation: Artist

Life: b. July 24, 1927

Birthday: July 24

famous quotes

I like to make an image that is so simple you can't avoid it, and so complicated you can't figure it out.

source: - Alex Katz, Vittoria Coen, Lisa Liebmann (1999). “Alex Katz. Catalogo della mostra”, Hopeful Monsters

Topics: Simple, Complicated, Figures

quote i like to make an image that is so simple you can t avoid it and so complicated you alex katz Quotes

Part of what Im about is seeing how I can paint the same thing differently instead of different things the same way.

source: - Gail Levin, Dewey F. Mosby, Alex Katz, Picker Gallery (1984). “Alex Katz, process and development: small paintings from the collection of Paul J. Schupf '58”

Topics: Different, Way, Paint

Painting seems an old man's business. After a certain time you're out of it, and you just paint masterpieces.

Topics: Men, Painting, Masters

Realist painting has to do with leaving out a lot of detail. I think my painting can be a little shocking in all that it leaves out. But what happens is that the mind fills in what's missing . . . Painting is a way of making you see what I saw.

Topics: Thinking, Missing, Leaving

You have to be a little scared of what you're doing. Otherwise, you just paint the same masterpiece a little worse.

source: - Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

Topics: Littles, Scared, Paint

What's in front of me is what's most interesting.

source: - Source: www.elle.com

Topics: Interesting, Most Interesting, Fronts

Paint faster than you can think.

Topics: Thinking, Paint, Faster

The abstract expressionists had that thing of, subject matter becomes content, content becomes form. And I always thought there was no room for style. I felt with my painting, the style really is the content. The style holds everything together.

source: - Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

Topics: Style, Together, Matter, Subject Matter

Actually, you want to go into an area where you're frightened. Otherwise, you're just going to be repainting beautiful paintings, but a little duller each time.

source: - Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

Topics: Beautiful, Want, Littles, Beautiful Paintings

What makes everything one is the style.

source: - Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

Topics: Style

Sometimes it takes me days or weeks to get something clear in my head on what I want to do. Everything is in steps. One thing leads to another.

source: - Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

Topics: Want, Steps, Sometimes

I know people can be a little nervous about swimsuits, but have some fun with it. Believe you can hold it down. If you believe you can hold it down, you can wear it.

source: - Source: www.elle.com

Topics: Fun, Believe, People, Swimsuits

I use the iPhone now for information. But with selfies, I don't know what those people are doing. It's like they believe what they see is real, even with the [filters]. And God bless them! But to me, it's not a self-portrait, it's a reality project.

source: - Source: www.elle.com

Topics: Real, Believe, Self, Self Portrait

Make a painting you can work on for a long period, and make it look like it doesn't show any effort.

Topics: Long, Effort, Looks

You usually want to get something out of a painting other than the ideas that you had in your head.

Topics: Ideas, Want, Painting

Most important, for openers, work six hours a day, seven days a week for six years. Then if you like it you can get serious about it.

Topics: Years, Important, Six, Seven Days

You have to find what your temperament is like and live around it. I find I work really well off the top of my head because you get the unconscious into it. Otherwise, it's just an idea. And I'm not so hot there.

source: - Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

Topics: Ideas, Hot, Wells

If you're going to go for 'it' you have a common thing you share with other artists; that's desperation. You jump out a window style-wise. Try to put it together before you hit the ground.

Topics: Wise, Artist, Style, Common Things

Picasso and Matisse were the guys I wanted to get away from, and cubism is all still lifes. Their paintings are all closed drawings. And still life is a perfect form for that. By the mid-'50s, I sort of dropped the still life. The large picture was a way of getting around them, too. The abstract expressionists were also into the large form because it was a way of getting around Matisse and Picasso. Picasso can't paint big paintings. Matisse didn't bother after a certain point.

source: - Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

Topics: Drawing, Perfect, Guy, Matisse, Cubism

Most contemporary artists are behind the bubble in time. They're making videos that are so incredibly boring compared to a good movie. Or they're making work where I say, "You realize minimal art is 50 or 60 years old?" That's what I tell people to shock them. They just blanch.

source: - Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

Topics: Art, Years, People

My mother thought I would have a hard life as a painter. My father thought the highest thing a person could be was an architect. Below that was a painter. So he thought it was much better than being, say, a doctor.

source: - Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

Topics: Mother, Father, Doctors

A New York audience generally likes decorative paintings, and decorative paintings go with the couch. If you change the couch, you change the painting. And when you're coming up, and the paintings aren't first-class decoration, you're at a disadvantage for publicity and sales.

source: - Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

Topics: New York, Class, Firsts

If you know what you're doing, you're doing dull stuff.

source: - Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

Topics: Doing You, Dull, Stuff

Related Authors

Alice Neel quotes

Alice Neel
Carter Ratcliff quotes

Carter Ratcliff
Chuck Close quotes

Chuck Close
Damien Hirst quotes

Damien Hirst
Dana Schutz quotes

Dana Schutz
David Hockney quotes

David Hockney
David Salle quotes

David Salle
Deborah Kass quotes

Deborah Kass
Edward Ruscha quotes

Edward Ruscha
Elizabeth Peyton quotes

Elizabeth Peyton
Eric Fischl quotes

Eric Fischl
Fairfield Porter quotes

Fairfield Porter
Francesco Clemente quotes

Francesco Clemente
Gary Hume quotes

Gary Hume
James Rosenquist quotes

James Rosenquist
Janet Fish quotes

Janet Fish
Jeff Koons quotes

Jeff Koons
Jeffrey Smart quotes

Jeffrey Smart
Jim Dine quotes

Jim Dine
John Baldessari quotes

John Baldessari
John Chamberlain quotes

John Chamberlain
John Currin quotes

John Currin
Julian Schnabel quotes

Julian Schnabel
Larry Rivers quotes

Larry Rivers
Luc Tuymans quotes

Luc Tuymans
Mel Ramos quotes

Mel Ramos
Neil Welliver quotes

Neil Welliver
Peter Doig quotes

Peter Doig
Peter Max quotes

Peter Max
Philip Pearlstein quotes

Philip Pearlstein
Red Grooms quotes

Red Grooms
Richard Estes quotes

Richard Estes
Robert Gober quotes

Robert Gober
Robert Indiana quotes

Robert Indiana
Robert Longo quotes

Robert Longo
Robert Motherwell quotes

Robert Motherwell
Robert Rauschenberg quotes

Robert Rauschenberg
Ross Bleckner quotes

Ross Bleckner
Roy Lichtenstein quotes

Roy Lichtenstein
Sol LeWitt quotes

Sol LeWitt
Tom Wesselmann quotes

Tom Wesselmann
Wayne Thiebaud quotes

Wayne Thiebaud
Will Barnet quotes

Will Barnet
April Gornik quotes

April Gornik
Fred Tomaselli quotes

Fred Tomaselli
James Welling quotes

James Welling
Laura Owens quotes

Laura Owens
Lisa Yuskavage quotes

Lisa Yuskavage
Sean Scully quotes

Sean Scully
Vija Celmins quotes

Vija Celmins

Authors starting with Letter

Topics starting with Letter