Sarah Thornton > Quotes

“The term bohemian has a bad reputation because it's allied to myriad clichés, but Parisians originally adopted the term, associated with nomadic Gypsies, to describe artists and writers who stayed up all night and ignored the pressures of the industrial world.”
― Sarah Thornton, Seven Days in the Art World

“Although the art world reveres the unconventional, it is rife with conformity. Artists make work that "looks like art" and behave in ways that enhance stereotypes. Curators pander to the expectations of their peers and their museum boards. Collectors run in herds to buy work by a handful of fashionable painters. Critics stick their finger in the air to see which way the wind is blowing so as to "get it right". Originality is not always rewarded, but some people take real risks and innovate, which gives a raison d'être to the rest.”
― Sarah Thornton, Seven Days in the Art World

“Our lives are constantly changing. Different things become relevant at different times in our lives. We are motivated by our changing sensibilities. Why can that not be applied to art?”
― Sarah Thornton, Seven Days in the Art World

“I'm an atheist, but I believe in art. I go to galleries like my mother went to church. It helps me understand the way I live.”
― Sarah Thornton, Seven Days in the Art World

“إن التصوير فن بصري قح يصعب علينا تمام أن نتحدث عنه أو نفسره بغير مايلائمه أو يتماشى معه . ص213”
― سارة ثورنتون, Seven Days in the Art World

“الفن ليس مايسرالعين فقط و إنما ما يعصف بالذهن. ص228”
― سارة ثورنتون, Seven Days in the Art World

“The newsletter contributes to the illusion of transparency,” he admits. “People are overinformed and undereducated. They have this veneer of knowledge.”
― Sarah Thornton, Seven Days in the Art World

“The contemporary art world is what Tom Wolfe would call a "statusphere." It's structured around nebulous and often contradictory hierarchies of fame, credibility, imagined historical importance, institutional affliction, perceived intelligence, wealth, and attribution such as the size of one's art collection.”
― Sarah Thornton, Seven Days in the Art World

“Art is not supposed to repeat what you already know. It is supposed to ask questions.”
― Sarah Thornton, 33 Artists in 3 Acts

“ما أن يوافق الفنان على الترشح للجائزة فإنه ينتقل إلى منطقة ومناخ غريبين يتطلبان منه قدرا عاليا من الثقة بالنفس حتى يتأقلم مع فحص الجمهور له و أعماله . ص219”
― سارة ثورنتون, Seven Days in the Art World

“Art is about experimenting and ideas, but it is also about excellence and exclusion. In a society where everyone is looking for a little distinction, it’s an intoxicating combination.”
― Sarah Thornton, Seven Days in the Art World

“إن الاختلاف في الرأي يوسع المدارك لكن تنازع المصالح يعمينا عن الحقيقة. ص224”
― سارة ثورنتون, Seven Days in the Art World

“Who, in 2007, would have thought that a drawing by Willem De Kooning would be a safer asset than shares in Lehman Brothers? By autumn 2008, this would clearly be the case.”
― Sarah Thornton, Seven Days In The Art World

“Their hatred is so passionate that I can't help but wonder if they're attracted to each other.”
― Sarah Thornton

“Art needs motives that are more profound than profit if it is to maintain its difference from—and position above—other cultural forms.”
― Sarah Thornton, Seven Days In The Art World

“إن اعتقادك بأنك لا محالة فائز بالجائزة هو أفضل وسيلة لتعذيب ذاتك. ص219”
― سارة ثورنتون, Seven Days in the Art World

“The function of museums is to make art worthless again. They take the work out of the market and put it in a place where it becomes part of the common wealth.”
― Sarah Thornton, Seven Days in the Art World

“العمل الفني العظيم هو ذلك العمل الذي يتيح لك أن تنظر إليه ومن دون أن ينغص عليك أو يثير في نفسك الضيق و لا يعني ذلك أنه عمل قابل لأي تأويل أو تفسير لكن هذا يعني تحديدا أنه عمل لا ينطوي على معنى ثابت محدود. ص220”
― سارة ثورنتون, Seven Days in the Art World

“Talent is a double-edged sword. What you are given is not really yours. What you work at, what you struggle for, what you have to take command of—that often makes for very good art.”
― Sarah Thornton, Seven Days in the Art World

“Like the size and composition of a work, the walk and talk of an artist has to persuade, not just others but the performers themselves. Whether they have colorful, large-scale personas or minimal, low-key selves, believable artists are always protagonists, never secondary characters who inhabit stereotypes. For this reason, I see artists’ studios as private stages for the daily rehearsal of self-belief.”
― Sarah Thornton, 33 Artists in 3 Acts

“Indeed, being an artist is not just a job but an identity dependent on a broad range of extracurricular intelligences.”
― Sarah Thornton, 33 Artists in 3 Acts

“Buying is an extremely satisfying, macho act”
― Sarah Thornton, Seven Days in the Art World

“Art is not a job for an artist, just as religion is not a job for a priest.” He runs his fingers through his hair again. “Sometimes I see myself as almost like an academic. My artworks are not really products; they are papers that you write when you have finalized a strain of thought.”
― Sarah Thornton, 33 Artists in 3 Acts

“In Wangechi Mutu’s mother tongue, Kikuyu, there is no word for “artist.” The closest term is something like “magician” or “a person who uses objects and imbues them with meaning and power,”
― Sarah Thornton, 33 Artists in 3 Acts

“إنني مغرم بالنظر فقط فانا أعشق الصور حتى الثمالة وأنا مقتنع بعدم جدوى الكلام المعسول عن الفن لأن الفن حسب عقيدتي يتحدث عن نفسه”
― Sarah Thornton

“Politics, kinship, and craft also happen to embrace some of the most important things in life: caring about your influence on the world, connecting meaningfully with others, and working hard to create something worthwhile.”
― Sarah Thornton, 33 Artists in 3 Acts

“Although Ségalot is wearing a conventional navy suit, his hair stands on end, thick with gel, neither in nor strictly out of fashion but in its own universe of style. Ségalot never studied art. He acquired an MBA, then worked in the marketing department of L’Oréal in Paris. As he explains, “It is not by chance that I went from cosmetics to art. We are dealing with beauty here. We are dealing in things that are unnecessary, dealing with abstractions.”
― Sarah Thornton, Seven Days in the Art World

“Their hatred is so passionate that I can't help but wonder if they're attracted to each other." S”
― Sarah Thornton, Seven Days in the Art World

“Takashi Murakami,”
― Sarah Thornton, Seven Days in the Art World

“Kelly wears her hair swept back in an odd 1940s pompadour that one writer assumed must be her “auxiliary brain.”
― Sarah Thornton, Seven Days in the Art World