Art

"The fine art world and the commercial art industry are both all about money. It's hard to say which is more contemptible: the fine art world with its double talk and pretensions to the cultural high ground, or the world of commercial art trying to sell to the largest mass market it can reach. A serious artist really shouldn't be too deeply involved in either of these worlds. It's best to be on the fringe of them. In general, if you want to be a success and make the money, you have to play the game. It's no different in the fine art world, it's just a slightly different game. Essentially, you're marketing an illusion. It's much easier to lie to humans and trick them than to tell them the truth. They'd much rather be bamboozled than be told the truth, because the way to trick them is to flatter them and tell them what they want to hear, to reinforce their existing illusions. They don't want to know the truth. Truth is a bring-down, a bummer, or it's just too complicated, too much mental work to grasp."

"Ever since 1953, when Russell Kirk produced its intellectual coat of arms, conservatism has been "what Edmund Burke wrote." This is the equivalent of Arthur Danto’s institutional theory of art — art is whatever the art world says it is. But it’s also a cop-out. Instead of analyzing conservatism in an Aristotelian way, instead of asking how we use the term in real life, we just describe Burke. In the process, don’t we risk fleeing into what Tanenhaus calls an "alternative universe"? If conservatives are "glaringly disconnected from the realities now besetting America," as Tanenhaus says, why is the solution to be more like a man who wore a powdered wig? Liberals have problems of their own, but, to their credit, they don’t sit around debating whether Hillary Clinton or John Edwards is the "real Rousseauian.""

"Purge the world of bourgeois sickness, ‘intellectual’, professional & commercialized culture ... PROMOTE A REVOLUTIONARY FLOOD AND TIDE IN ART, ... promote NON ART REALITY to be grasped by all peoples, not only critics, dilettantes and professionals ... FUSE the cadres of cultural, social & political revolutionaries into united front & action.""

"The misunderstandings have seemed to come from comparing fluxus with movements or groups whose individuals ‘have had some principle in common, or an agreed-upon program. In fluxus there has never been any attempt to agree on aims or methods; individuals with something unnameable in common have simply naturally coalesced to publish and perform their work. Perhaps this common something is a feeling that the bounds of art are much wider than they have conventionally seemed, or that art and certain long-established bounds are no longer very useful. At any rate, individuals in europe, the us, and japan have discovered each other’s work and found it nourishing (or something) and have grown objects and events which are original, and often uncategorizable, in a strange new way."

"fluxus is the “event” according to george brecht:"

"On the first night I performed a 'Concert for tow Musicians'. It lasted for perhaps twenty seconds. I dashed forward in the gap between two performances wound up a clockwork toy, two drummers, on the piano, and let them play until the clockwork ran down. That was the end. The Fluxus people felt that this short action was my breakthrough, while the event of the second evening was perhaps too heavy, complicated and anthropological for them. Yet the “Siberian Symphony, section 1.” contained the essence of all my future activities and was, I felt, a wider understanding of what Fluxus could be.. ..(the Fluxus artists) held a mirror up to people without indicating how to change things. This is not to belittle what they did achieve in the way of indicating connections in life and how art could develop."

"Only then would the insistence on participation of the action art of FLUXUS and Happening be fulfilled; only then would democracy be fully realized. Only a conception of art revolutionized to this degree can turn into a politically productive force, coursing through each person, and shaping history."

"The idea of an art world forms the backbone of my analysis. "Art world" is commonly used by writers on the arts in a loose and metaphoric way, mostly to refer to the most fashionable people associated with those newsworthy objects and events that command astronomical prices. I have used the term in a more technical way, to denote the the network of people whose cooperative activity, organized via their joint knowledge of conventional means of doing things, produce(s) the kind of art works that art world is noted for."

"The current demoralization of the art world is attributable at least in part to museum interference, ideological and practical, with ongoing creation in art."

"The Fluxus movement... developed its 'anti-art', anti-commercial aesthetics under the leadership of George Maciunas. Fluxus staged a series of festivals in Paris, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, London and New York, with avant-garde performances often spilling out into the street. Most of the experimental artists of the period, including Joseph Beuys, Yoko Ono and Nam June Paik, took part in Fluxus events. The movement, which still continues, played an important role in the opening up of definitions of what art can be."

"I don't like a lot of the stuff that goes on in the art world, but it's hard to be old and like what goes on around you. Anyway, the real point is that the things that don't seem to me to be pictorially informed are not so interesting to me."

"My first concert - apart from Beethoven at School and Satie at the opening of my exhibition in Kleve in 1960 - was at the gallery Parnass in Wuppertal in 1963. Dressed like a regular pianist in dark grey flannel, black tie and no hat, I played the piano all over – not just the keys – with many pairs of old shoes until it disintegrated. My intention was neither destructive nor nihilistic. “Heal like with like” – similia similibus curantur – in the homeopathic sense. The main intention was to indicate a new beginning.. ..or simply a revolutionary act. This was my first public Fluxus appearance."

"... a loose network of overlapping subcultures held together by a belief in art. They span the globe but cluster in art capitals like New York, London, Los Angeles, and Berlin."

"The art world is really exactly the same as the sex industry: you have to be completely on guard, you will get shafted, fucked over left, right and centre. And you will also meet charming, wonderful people like a rainbow at the end of the day."

"It was narrated that 'Abdulleh said: "The Messenger of Allah cursed the woman who does tattoos and the one who has them done, and those who pluck their eyebrows and file their teeth for the purpose of beautification, and those who change the creation of Allah." News of that reached a woman of Banu Asad who was called Umm Ya'qub. She came to him and said: "I have heard that you said such and such." He said: 'Why should I not curse those whom the Messenger of Allah cursed ? And it is in the Book of Allah." She said: "I read what is between its two covers 'and I have not found that." He said: "If you read it properly you would have found it. Have you not read the words: 'And whatsoever the Messenger (Muhammad) gives you, take it; and whatsoever he forbids you, abstain (from it).'?" She said: "Of course." He said: 'The Messenger of Allah forbade that." She said: 'I think that your wife does it.' He said: " Go and look." So she went and looked and she did not see what she wanted. She said: "I have not seen anything!’ 'Abdullah said: "If she was as you say, I would not have kept her with me. " (Sahih)"

"Narrated Ibn 'Umar : The Prophet has cursed the lady who lengthens hair artificially and that who gets her hair lengthened in such away, and the lady who practises tattooing and that who gets it done for herself."

"I pretended to admire the tattoo in the shape of the Greek letter omega that covered her cheeks and forehead. It looked as if a dray horse had kicked her in the face."

"Narrated Aun bin Abu Juhaifa: I saw my father buying a slave whose profession was cupping, and ordered that his instruments (of cupping) be broken. I asked him the reason for doing so. He replied, "Allah's Apostle prohibited taking money for blood, the price of a dog, and the earnings of a slave-girl by prostitution; he cursed her who tattoos and her who gets tattooed, the eater of Riba (usury), and the maker of pictures.""

"Narrated Abu Huraira : Allah's Apostle said, "The evil eye is a fact," and he forbade tattooing."

"Narrated Ibn 'Umar : I heard the Prophet saying, (or the Prophet said), "Allah has cursed the lady who practices tattooing and that who gets it done for herself, and also the lady who lengthens hair artificially and that who gets her hair lengthened artificially." The Prophet has cursed such ladies."

"Narrated 'Aun bin Abu Juhaifa: My father bought a slave who practiced the profession of cupping. (My father broke the slave's instruments of cupping). I asked my father why he had done so. He replied, "The Prophet forbade the acceptance of the price of a dog or blood, and also forbade the profession of tattooing, getting tattooed and receiving or giving Riba, (usury), and cursed the picture-makers.""

"Narrated Abu Juhaifa: The Prophet forbade the use of the price of blood and the price of a dog, the one who takes (eats) usury the one who gives usury, the woman who practises tattooing and the woman who gets herself tattooed."

"Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto: I have been marked once, my dear, and let me assure you... no needle shall ever touch my skin again."

"Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the Lord."

"“Allah has cursed those women who practise tattooing and those women who have themselves tattooed, and those women who get their hair removed from their eyebrows and faces (except the beard and the mustache), and those who make artificial spaces between their teeth for beauty, whereby they change Allah’s creation.”"

"Muhammad forbade the custom of the idolaters of Arabia to prick the hands of their women and to rub the punctures over with wood, indigo, and other colours."

"“Allah has cursed those women who tattooed and who have themselves been tattooed, those who pluck hair from their faces and those who make spaces between their teeth for beautification changing what God has created” (5301)."

"Scarifying and tattooing are going out of fashion. Many of the young men once so proud of their “ichi” marks, would gladly be relieved of [their marks]. What is a matter of pride, when among his own clansmen, becomes a reproach, because of the ridicule and contempt which is meted out to him in other parts of the country."

"Narrated Abu Huraira : A woman who used to practise tattooing was brought to 'Umar. 'Umar got up and said, "I beseech you by Allah, which of you heard the Prophet saying something about tattooing?" l got up and said, "0 chief of the Believers! l heard something." He said, "What did you hear?" I said, "I heard the Prophet (addressing the ladies), saying, 'Do not practise tattooing and do not get yourselves tattooed.'""

"What avails, then, the folly of the painter, who from sinful love of gain depicts that which should not be depicted—that is, with his polluted hands he tries to fashion that which should only be believed in the heart and confessed with the mouth? He makes an image and calls it Christ."

"If anyone shall endeavor to represent the forms of the Saints in lifeless pictures with material colors which are of no value (for this notion is vain and introduced by the devil), and does not rather represent their virtues as living images in himself, let him be anathema!"

"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image (Hebrew פסל) or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth."

"God is spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."

"Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images (εἰκόνος) resembling mortal man."

"They need to learn the importance of respect. They think getting up is cool, but too many young writers out there don’t have any knowledge of graffiti’s roots."

"Graffiti is graffiti and street art is street art. Street artists are more concerned with getting a message out to the public. And it often has political and social overtones. Graffiti is about style."

"Sure, but Germany actually provides us with graffiti lawyers. And you need to be caught in action in order for the police to arrest you."

"Graffiti is a culture where if you're shit, everyone is quick to tell you. The mark of respect for a graffiti artists is how long your "piece" and tag stay up on a wall. Out of raw respect, other artists will not paint over something they think is good, and anyone who does paint over it better be prepared for a beat-down. However, if your stuff is no good, or if you are seen as amateur, you'll quickly find the word "lame" written all over your work. The offending person would then leave their own tag on the side as a direct challenge. The only way to get even was to be good. In the days before the mainstreaming of hip-hop culture and the appreciation of artists like Banksy, this was classic counterculture stuff."

"It was a big joke actually. The police thought that we were more than artists—they thought we were terrorists that wanted to bomb the city. They spent three days searching us and we spent one day in custody. In the end, the mayor of the city decided to release us."

"the reasons that I like to do graffiti are: 1- with making graffiti I want to cover all bad memories of war from people’s mind, with colors to cover all bad element of war with my graffiti’s. 2- to introduce art to people with making graffiti, cause as you know afghan people has no chance to visit some art gallery or museums, or they don’t want to go to some art exhibition, so if I do art everybody will enjoy it. In outside it is for longer time and slowly people with memorize it and it will be part of their life when every day they use the same way of that wall, it doesn’t need to ticket as well, it is colorful and bringing some change and give too much color to people’s mind. 3- I could say my words with shape to people, easily, image has more effect then word, and it’s a friendly way to fight, as I am fighting, now, for women rights as well with my art. 4- I believe there are many who forget all the tragedy women face in Afghanistan that is why I use my paintings as a mean to remind the people. I want to highlight the matter in the society, with paintings reflecting women in Burqas everywhere. And I try to show them bigger than what they are in reality, and in modern forms, in shaped in happiness, movement, maybe stronger. I try to make people look at them differently."

"I grew up in a very small town, without buildings but only houses – not the best for tagging. Also I liked the atmosphere of abandoned spaces, somehow apart from the real world. A good place to practice.It was only when I moved to a bigger city and felt more confident about my paintings that I started to do it in the streets. Tagging then became a drug; I was addicted to graffiti."

"[The street art is] decorative, contextual, layered and artists aren’t afraid of giving their name. Graffiti is more underground, more rebel."

"People say graffiti is ugly, irresponsible and childish. But that's only if it's done properly."

"Graffiti has more chance of meaning something or changing stuff than anything indoors. Graffiti has been used to start revolutions, stop wars, and generally is the voice of people who aren't listened to. Graffiti is one of those few tools you have if you have almost nothing. And even if you don't come up with a picture to cure world poverty you can make somebody smile while they're having a piss."

"Well, it was just—it seemed like it was violence, and, like, 'cause I went by some of the stores that, like, I don't really eat at McDonald's, y'know, but a lot of people do, and so there are these people who want, y'know, they're-they're socialists but they hate people, y'know, so they go trash the McDonald's, and I just think it was just reckless violence, and they weren't tryin'a accomplish anything, and they said—he was writing something on the wall, some kind of graffiti that was just stupid and cliché, and I said, "Hey, how would you like if someone did that to your house?" and he yelled back, "Fuck you!" and these other people started yelling "Fuck you!" at me; I'm, like, "Oh," like "I'm in trouble.""

"I largely see graffiti as a set of painting techniques that represent an individual’s artistic expression. There are 3 main types of graffiti designs: character pieces, realistic pieces, and text pieces. I most often do text pieces, of which there are 4 styles: 2D, 3D, Wild Style, and Old School. I love Wild Style the most, which involves very colorful designs. I have a personal theme that I like to involve in my work – the butterfly. That is where I derive my name from: BF stands for butterfly. I try to convey the character of a butterfly when I do my work – things like freedom and bold expression. I want to be able to freely express my ideas and feelings through graffiti. Many people see graffiti as one of four main pillars of hip hop culture. I agree with this to an extent, but for me personally, graffiti is mostly a personal pursuit of artistic expression. My perception is that in places like the USA and Korea, maybe graffiti is more readily seen as hip hop culture, but maybe in some other places like Europe, it is less defined and might be seen as more of an artistic expression."

"I think it’s fantastic that graffiti and street artists are getting the recognition they deserve – it’s art with a social message made by anyone who’s got the bottle to spray on a wall and risk arrest."

"I wanted that work to carry the most important message ... that a person mustn't sell himself. I made a chocolate bar that can't be bought, using a giant panel of concrete."

"Italy and Europe in general can boast an ancient and hugely important tradition in art. It is difficult to enter the scene if you do something new, especially if it doesn’t belong to your traditional culture. I was lucky to travel very soon at the beginning of my career, so I was able to reach relative notoriety overseas (especially in America and Canada). There, people are of course more used to graffiti and more interested in discovering and appreciating it. My work improved greatly thanks to the foreign market. The audience was more openminded and I have been able to create a stronger artistic identity thanks to them. Nowadays I am working a lot in Europe and I am starting to have interesting clients in Italy also. It’s a bit difficult, in Italy, to find places to showcase graffiti art, but I can perceive a growing attention to the movement and initiatives that promote a harmonic mix of urban architecture and wall painting."

"The disinterested love of truth which culture fosters is akin to the unselfishness which is a characteristic of the good."