Agnes Martin
Art is the concrete representation of our most subtle feelings.Collection: Art
When I think of art I think of beauty. Beauty is the mystery of life. It is not in the eye it is in the mind. In our minds there is awareness of perfection.Collection: Art
My paintings are not about what is seen. They are about what is known forever in the mind.Collection: Art
The Minimalists are idealist. They want to minimize themselves in favor of the ideal... But I just can't. You see, my paintings are not cool.Collection: Cool
Happiness is being on the beam with life - to feel the pull of life.Collection: Happiness
The value of art is in the observer.
The main thing in making art often is letting go of your expectation and your idea.
Artwork is a representation of our devotion to life.
My paintings are certainly nonobjective. They're just horizontal lines.
One thing I like about Zen. It doesn't believe in achievement.
To progress in life you must give up the things you do not like. Give up doing the things that you do not like to do. You must find the things that you do like. The things that are acceptable to your mind.
I think everyone is born 100 percent ego, and after that it's just adjustment.
When I first made a grid, I happened to be thinking of the innocence of trees, and then a grid came into my mind and I thought it represented innocence, and I still do, and so I painted it and then I was satisfied. I thought, 'This is my vision.'
You can't make a perfect painting. We can see perfection in our minds. But we can't make a perfect painting.
I don't think the way to succeed is by doing something aggressive. Aggression is weak-minded.
I'm very careful not to have ideas, because they're inaccurate.
Any material may be used but the theme is the same and the response is the same for all artwork... we all have the same concern, but the artist must know exactly what the experience is. He must pursue the truth relentlessly.
People who look at my painting say that it makes them happy, like the feeling when you wake up in the morning. And happiness is the goal, isn't it?
The worst thing you can think about when you're working is yourself.
Beauty is the mystery of life. It is not in the eye, it is in the mind.Collection: Eye
Doing what you were born to do … That's the way to be happy.Collection: Way
It's not about facts, it's about feelings. It's about remembering feelings and happiness. A definition of art is that it makes concrete our most subtle emotions. I think the highest form of art is music. It's the most abstract of all art expression.Collection: Happiness
Beauty and happiness and life are all the same and they are pervasive, unattached and abstract and they are our only concern. They are immeasurable, completely lacking in substance. They are perfect and sublime. This is the subject matter of art.Collection: Art
I paint with my back to the worldCollection: World
It's through discipline and tremendous disappointment and failure that you arrive at what it is you must paint.Collection: Disappointment
When I first made a grid I happened to be thinking of the innocence of trees and then this grid came into my mind and I thought it represented innocence, and I still do, and so I painted it and then I was satisfied. I thought, this is my vision.Collection: Thinking
I used to meditate until I learned to stop thinking.Collection: Thinking
Inspiration is there all the time. For everyone whose mind is not clouded over with thoughts whether they realize it or not.Collection: Inspiration
That which takes us by surprise-moments of happiness-that is inspiration.Collection: Art
When you look in your mind you find it covered with a lot of rubbishy thoughts. You have to penetrate these and hear what your mind is telling you to do. Such work is original work.Collection: Mind
I once taught art to adults in a night course. I had a woman who painted her back yard, and she said it was the first time she had ever really looked at it. I think everyone sees beauty. Art is a way to respondCollection: Art
There's nobody living who couldn't stand all afternoon in front of a waterfall .... Anyone who can sit on a stone in a field awhile can see my painting. Nature is like parting a curtain, you go into it .... as you would cross an empty beach to look at the ocean.Collection: Beach
I want to emphasize the fact that we all have the same experience and the same concern, but the artist must know exactly what the experience is. He must pursue the truth relentlessly. Once he sees this fact his feet are on the path. If you want to know the truth you will know it. The manipulation of materials in an artwork is a result of this state of mind. The artist works by awareness of his own state of mind.Collection: Artist
I often paint tranquility. If you stop thinking and rest, then a little happiness comes into your mind. At perfect rest you are comfortable.Collection: Thinking
Fulfill your potential. That's the way to happiness.Collection: Way
Anything can be painted without representation.Collection: Representation
The adventurous state of mind is a high house... The joy of adventure is unaccountable. This is the attractiveness of artwork. It is adventurous, strenuous and joyful.Collection: Adventure
The enormous pitfall is devotion to oneself instead of to life. All works that are self-devoted are absolutely ineffective.Collection: Self
Happiness is being on the beam with life - to feel the pull of lifeCollection: Beam
My paintings are certainly nonobjective. They're just horizontal lines. There's not any hint of nature. And still everybody responds, I think.Collection: Art
I think our minds respond to things beyond this world. Take beauty: it's a very mysterious thing, isn't it? I think it's a response in our minds to perfection. It's too bad, people not realizing that their minds expand beyond this world.Collection: Beauty
What I say is that we're capable of a transcendent response, and I think it makes us happy. And I do think beauty produces a transcendent response.Collection: Beauty
Pollock was terrific. I think he freed himself of all kinds of worry about this world. Ran around and dripped, and then he managed to express ecstasy.Collection: Art
I would like my work to be recognized as being in the classical tradition (Coptic, Egyptian, Greek, Chinese), as representing the Ideal in the mind. Classical art cannot possibly be eclectic. One must see the ideal in one's own mind. It is like a memory - an awareness -of perfection.Collection: Art
I hope I have made it clear that the work is about perfection as we are aware of it in our minds but that the paintings are very far from being perfect - completely removed in fact - even as we ourselves are.Collection: Art
Any material may be used but the theme is the same and the response is the same for all artwork... we all have the same concern, but the artist must know exactly what the experience is. He must pursue the truth relentlesslyCollection: Artist
What we really want to do is serve happiness. We want everyone to be happy, never unhappy even for a moment. We want the animals to be happy. The happiness of every living thing is what we want.Collection: Happiness
The Minimalists are idealist. They want to minimise themselves in favour of the ideal. But I just can't. You see, my paintings are not cool. ... I'm very careful not to have ideas, because they're inaccurate.Collection: Ideas