Chinese Art Quotes:

Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never peril.

- Sun Tzu

topic: Inspirational, Art, Fear, Knowing Others, Military History

If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is tempermental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. If sovereign and subject are in accord, put division between them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.

- Sun Tzu

topic: Strength, Military, Giving, Military Strategy, War Strategy

I like the fact that in ancient Chinese art the great painters always included a deliberate flaw in their work: human creation is never perfect.

- Madeleine L'Engle

topic: Art, Creativity, Perfect, Chinese Art

Traditional Chinese art looked at the Earth from a Confucian mountain top; Japanese art looked closely around screens; Italian Renaissance art surveyed conquered nature through the window or door-frame of a palace. For the Cro-Magnons, space is a metaphysical arena of continually intermittent appearances and disappearances.

- John Berger

source: "Past present" by John Berger, www.theguardian.com. October 12, 2002.

topic: Art, Italian, Space, Japanese Art, Italian Renaissance

All the rich people collect traditional Chinese art. So it's very natural for Chinese families to still see art as the highest human performance and send their children to this field.

- Ai Weiwei

source: Interview with Claudine Ko, www.mcsweeneys.net. March 7, 2013.

topic: Art, Children, People, Chinese Art

I don't think it's worth discussing new directions in the context of Chinese art - there were no old directions, either. Chinese art has never had any clear orientation.

- Ai Weiwei

source: "Ai Weiwei: 'China's art world does not exist'" by Ai Weiwei:, www.theguardian.com. September 10, 2012.

topic: Art, Thinking, Chinese, Chinese Art

I’m actually trying to make sense of the world. There’s nothing cynical or absurd in what I do.

- Yue Minjun

topic: Meaningful, Cynical, Chinese, Chinese Art, Meaningfulness

So-called Chinese art and culture is under control of the Party. They exist to serve the official agenda. I call it fake art and culture.

- Ai Weiwei

source: "Freely Speaking". Interview with Paul D. Miller, realitysandwich.com. August 22, 2012.

topic: Art, Fake, Chinese, Chinese Art, Art And Culture

Because Chinese art is booming, it legitimizes this profession.

- Ai Weiwei

source: Interview with Claudine Ko, www.mcsweeneys.net. March 7, 2013.

topic: Art, Chinese, Profession, Chinese Art

I don't like the idea of nationalism, but on the other hand, I do see that there is a difference between British art, German art and Chinese art. This is because of the history, because each country has different history and each country reads and teaches that history differently.

- Michael Craig-Martin

source: Source: www.artzip.org

topic: Country, Art, Hands, Chinese Art

Widespread state control over art and culture has left no room for freedom of expression in the country. For more than 60 years, anyone with a dissenting opinion has been suppressed. Chinese art is merely a product: it avoids any meaningful engagement. There is no larger context. Its only purpose is to charm viewers with its ambiguity.

- Ai Weiwei

source: "China's art world does not exist" by Ai Weiwei, www.theguardian.com. September 10, 2012.

topic: Meaningful, Country, Art, Chinese Art, Art And Culture

I'm getting more and more into Chinese art and Japanese, some of those scroll paintings are amazing. You follow the change of the seasons. It's really something. These guys were great masters and of course the use of space.

- Robert Barry

topic: Art, Space, Guy, Chinese Art