Edward Hopper Art Quotations

If you could say it in words there would be no reason to paint.

Great art is the outward expression of an inner life in the artist, and this inner life will result in his personal vision of the world.

The question of the value of nationality in art is perhaps unsolvable.

In its most limited sense, modern, art would seem to concern itself only with the technical innovations of the period.

The trend in some of the contemporary movements in art, but by no means all, seems to deny this ideal and to me appears to lead to a purely decorative conception of painting.

In general it can be said that a nation's art is greatest when it most reflects the character of its people.

No amount of skillful invention can replace the essential element of imagination.

So many people say painting is fun. I don't find it fun at all. It's hard work for me.

The only quality that endures in art is a personal vision of the world. Methods are transient: personality is enduring.

One of the weaknesses of much abstract painting is the attempt to substitute the inventions of the intellect for a pristine imaginative conception. The inner life of a human being is a vast and varied realm and does not concern itself alone with stimulating arrangements of color, form and design. The term 'life' as used in art is something not to be held in contempt, for it applies all of its existence, and the province of art is to react to it and not to shun it. Painting will have to deal more fully and less obliquely with life and nature's phenomena before it can again be great.

So much of every art is an expression of the subconscious that it seems to me most of all the important qualities are put there unconsciously, and little of importance by the conscious intellect. But these are things for the psychologist to untangle.