Louis Kahn Art Quotations

Every time a student walks past a really urgent, expressive piece of architecture that belongs to his college, it can help reassure him that he does have that mind, does have that soul.

If people want to see Beaux-Arts, it's fine with me. I'm interested in good architecture as anybody else.

A Work of Art... is not a living thing ...that walks or runs.But the making of a life.That which gives you a reaction.To some it is the wonder of Man's Fingers.To some it is the wonder of the Mind.To some it is the wonder of Technique.And to some it is how Real it is.To some, how Transcendent it is.Like the 5th Symphony it presents itself with a feeling that you know it, if you have heard it once.And you look for it,and though you know it you must hear it again.Though you know it you must see it again.Truly a work of Art is one that tells us, that Nature cannot make what man can make.

I sense a Threshold: Light to Silence, Silence to Light - an ambiance of inspiration, in which the desire to be, to express, crosses with the possible Light to Silence, Silence to Light crosses in the sanctuary of art.

The creation of art is not the fulfillment of a need but the creation of a need. The world never needed Beethoven's Fifth Symphony until he created it. Now we could not live without it.

A Work of Art... is not a living thing ...that walks or runs.But the making of a life.That which gives you a reaction.To some it is the wonder of Man's Fingers.To some it is the wonder of the Mind.To some it is the wonder of Technique.And to some it is how Real it is.To some, how Transcendent it is.Like the 5th Symphony it presents itself.