The Painter's Keys Community For Artists The Painter's Keys, a book by Robert Genn

Search the Painter's Keys:

Search for an author:

To Subscribe: enter your email address and click "Go"

Absolutely free, no strings. Cancel at any time. You'll get the valuable twice-weekly letter only.

Your email address will not be lent, sold or put on any spam or other nasty list. Guaranteed.

Robert's worldwide gift that artists love to get.
Bob’s Best

Mastering colour, learning to paint, finding out how successful artists run their lives, or setting up an artist’s website--these are Robert Genn’s top picks of the best currently available DVDs and Downloads. They have been studied and evaluated by Robert and have received his unsolicited “Seal of Approval.” Check out the selection here.

Resource of Art Quotations

For researchers or artists just looking for inspiration, this is the world's largest collection of art quotes and sayings--online or in a book. It's entirely the work of volunteer subscribers and others. New art quotes are going in daily. Our staff will make all your entries searchable by author and subject. One word of caution--don't try to print it all out--you will run out of ink if you do.

Subscribe to the Free Twice-Weekly Letter: See our Welcome Letter about subscription benefits and an outline of the features of this website.

Receive daily art quotes through Twitter

Follow us on Twitter to receive daily inspirational art quotes as well as lots of other great info for artists.


«Purpose Art Quotes

·previous quote category·

Search for another category:

Questions Art Quotes»

·next quote category·

Quality Art Quotes

48 art quotes about Quality | Submit more Quality art quotes

Quality is decided by the depth at which the work incorporates the alternatives within itself, and so masters them. (Theodor W. Adorno)

Look beneath the surface; let not the several quality of a thing nor its worth escape thee. (Marcus Aurelius)

A clear idea about the nature of quality in art will always result in inferior art tailored to it. (Darby Bannard)

There are no absolutes in painting. All is measured by that relative term, quality. It is in this search for quality that the artist is, of necessity, the eternal student. (Rex Brandt)

The best way to achieve surprise quality is by avoiding cliches. (Alexey Brodovitch)

To paint even a little passage with a measure of quality is to achieve a life's triumph. (Charles Philip Brooks)

You can't fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal. (William S. Burroughs)

Art is the transmittable, personal impression of one quality in the quantity before us. It is the ability to determine consciously what it is that interests him, and why, that differentiates the artist from the art student. (John F. Carlson)

The quality of the paintings speak louder than the words about them or their creator. (Jane Champagne)

The first quality that is needed is audacity. (Winston Churchill)

-on Titian...
There is a man whose qualities can be savored by people who are getting old... The painter qualities are carried to the highest point in his work: what he does is done - through and through; when he paints eyes, they are lit with the fire of life. (Eugene Delacroix)

Eventually everything connects - people, ideas, objects. The quality of the connections is the key to quality per se. (Charles Eames)

Quality is a word that assumes all parties have the same point of view. (Judy Elliott)

I am a firm believer that color expresses mood and base my skill on the old adage 'The six qualities that make a great work of art are: Originality, Imagination, Mystery, Beauty, Composition, and Technique.' (Chantell van Erbe)

Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives. (William A. Foster)

You can make a quality painting out of any subject by putting your own spin into it. (Nina Allen Freeman)

The objective is always quality – the elusive quality that is never guaranteed but we know is there on the palette. (Sylvio Gagnon)

Quality is always in style. (Robert Genn)

It's better to have a small diamond than a large piece of glass. (Robert Genn)

It's as though aesthetic value, quality, could be preserved only by concentrating on 'absolute' or 'autonomous' art: thus on visual art... that held and moved and stirred the beholder as sheer decoration could not. (Clement Greenberg)

There is a very real relationship, both quantitatively and qualitatively, between what you contribute and what you get out of this world. (Oscar Hammerstein)

Even if virtually anything can be art, there are levels of quality. (Thomas Hoving)

Although not of the quality of my later work, I feel there is some quality to it [my early work] in an art sense, and probably some additional quality in a biographical sense. (E. J. Hughes)

Quality stands the test of time. Monetary reward is not directly connected. Mozart was buried in a pauper's grave; Snoop Dogg is presently enjoying his millions. (Marvin Humphrey)

As-if principle: If you want a quality, act as if you already had it. (William James)

The most convincing artistic forms of our time are inner models of structural vitality and social relevance. They give us confidence that in spite of everything there is still quality to life. (Gyorgy Kepes)

Unless you periodically unbind yourself from the world... you will fail to release those qualities of your mind that can generate images of the world as you would prefer it to be or the world as you declare it as being. (Peter London)

The quality of your work, in the long run, is the deciding factor on how much your services are valued by the world. (Orison Swett Marden)

When the true qualities of photography are recognized, the process of representation by mechanical means will be brought to a level of perfection never before reached. (Laszlo Moholy-Nagy)

Attention to quality of time spent on any given work of art is what makes a work of art speak and gives it its primary language, which is common to all souls, light. This light is visible on many levels. It is not something you think about, it is a quality you feel and see at the same time. (Leslie Montana)

My aim is to create images for the paradox and 'duality' which I see in all things. The sharp lines and painstaking finish do not reflect hard-edge painting, but the hermetic quality of jewelry. (Victor Newsome)

Of course quality is important but is it not the quality of an individual's originality that is most important? (Robert Owen)

Art is precisely that condition which pertains when, after all analysis and reduction to parts has taken place, there remains a 'quality' which is more than the sum of those parts, which could not exist in any other form, and which cannot be caught, or held, or contained. (Douglas Portway)

We talk about the quality of product and service. What about the quality of our relationships and the quality of our communications and the quality of our promises to each other? (Max de Pree)

Shall I tell you what I think are the two qualities of a work of art? First, it must be indescribable, and, second, it must be inimitable. (Pierre-Auguste Renoir)

-conversation with Nicholas Serota, Spring 2011...
It's that same quality I've been talking about. It's neither contrived, nor surprising and smart, not baffling, not witty, not interesting, not cynical, it can't be planned and it probably can't even be described. It's just good. (Gerhard Richter)

The word 'paradox' has always had a kind of magic for me, and I think my pictures have a paradoxical quality, a paradox of chaos and order in one. (Bridget Riley)

Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of intelligent effort. (John Ruskin)

Never has interest in art been so high, and never has quality been so low. (John Ruskin)

It is quality rather than quantity that matters. (Seneca)

Quality is an aspect of the expression of one's soul. And I'm told that the soul is perfect. (Robert Sesco)

Empirical research has shown that quality tends to be the consequence of quantity when it comes to creativity... Those who produce more masterworks also produce more rubbish. (Keith Simonton)

It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. (Henry David Thoreau)

I have offended God and mankind because my work didn't reach the quality it should have. (Leonardo da Vinci)

The qualities we possess should never be a matter for satisfaction, but the qualities we have discarded. (Wei Wu Wei)

It is not the style but the quality and emotional impact of work that makes it marketable. Unless we make art that connects with people, we won't sell much, no matter what the style or subject. (Jack White)

There are some people who have the quality of richness and joy in them and they communicate it to everything they touch. It is first of all a physical quality; then it is a quality of the spirit. (Tom Wolfe)

If I cannot overwhelm with my quality, I will overwhelm with my quantity. (Emile Zola)


«Purpose Art Quotes

·previous quote category·

Search for another category:

Questions Art Quotes»

·next quote category·



back to Category Index

Editor: Robert Genn

Assistant Editor: Shawn Jackson

Associate Editors:

Scott Altman, Bonnie Austin, Karen Austin, Michele Becker, Joe Blodgett, Norman Brown, Alyce Bryson, Leanne Cadden, Penny Duane, Max Elliot, Derek Franklin, Sara Genn, Mardy Grothe, Harry Hartley, Sue Holland, Sue Legault, Tammy McManus, Eric Mewhinney, Bruce Miller, Laura Parrish, Andrea Pratt, Dan Roberts, Shirley Rochon, Gilbert Roy, John Sherlock, Victor Wong,
And many others who have so far contributed one quote or a few. Please join us and add more at

World's largest resource of art quotes, art sayings, creativity quotes,
painting quotes, famous art quotes, inspirational art quotes.

Robert's worldwide gift that artists love to get.

Absolutely free, no strings. Cancel at any time.
You'll get the valuable twice-weekly letter only.
Your email address will not be lent, sold or put
on any spam or other nasty list. Guaranteed.
CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE FREE

Last modified: May 21, 2013