“It is a mistake for a sculptor or a painter to speak or write very often about his job. It releases tension needed for his work.” Henry Moore, an Anglo-Irish sculptor and artist, best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art, was born on 30 July 1898.
“A painting that doesn’t shock isn’t worth painting.” Marcel Duchamp, commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, as one of the three artists who helped to define the revolutionary developments in the arts in the opening decades of the twentieth century, was born on July 28, 1887.
“All great art is a visual form of prayer.” Sister Wendy Beckett. Today is the birthday of Judith Leyster who was born on July 28, 1609. She was a Dutch Golden Age painter whose entire oeuvre was attributed to Frans Hals until 1893. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find a quote from Judith Leyster so I have used a quote from TV art historian Sister Wendy.
“The war was a mirror; it reflected man’s every virtue and every vice, and if you looked closely, like an artist at his drawings, it showed up both with unusual clarity.” George Grosz was born Georg Ehrenfried Groß in Berlin, Germany, on July 26, 1893. He served as an infantryman during the Great War though was invalided out. He is known especially for his caricatural drawings and paintings of Berlin life in the 1920s.
“It is generally admitted that the most beautiful qualities of a color are in its transparent state, applied over a white ground with the light shining through the color.” Maxfield Parrish, an American painter and illustrator known for his distinctive saturated hues and idealized neo-classical imagery, was born on July 25, 1870.
“Art exists only to communicate a spiritual message” Alphonse Mucha, a Czech Art Nouveau painter and decorative artist, known best for his distinct style, was born on July 24, 1860 and died on July 14, 1939.
“To an engineer, good enough means perfect. With an artist, there’s no such thing as perfect.” Alexander Calder, an American sculptor known as the originator of the mobile, a type of moving sculpture made with delicately balanced or suspended shapes that move in response to touch or air currents, was born on July 22, 1898.
“Great art is the outward expression of an inner life in the artist.” Edward Hopper, a prominent American realist painter and printmaker who was most popularly known for his oil paintings, was born on July 22, 1882.
“Painting is easy when you don’t know how, but very difficult when you do.” Edgar Degas, a French artist famous for his paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings, is especially identified with the subject of dance; more than half of his works depict dancers. He was born on July 19, 1834.
Art Quote of the Day 