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The enormous pitfall is devotion to oneself instead of to life. All works that are self-devoted are absolutely ineffective.
Agnes Martin
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Agnes Martin
Age: 92 †
Born: 1912
Born: March 22
Died: 2004
Died: December 16
Artist
Drawer
Painter
Agnes Bernice Martin
Enormous
Oneself
Absolutely
Works
Pitfall
Instead
Ineffective
Self
Pitfalls
Life
Devoted
Devotion
More quotes by Agnes Martin
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.
Agnes Martin
It is commonly thought that everything that is can be put into words.
Agnes Martin
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.
Agnes Martin
Anything can be painted without representation.
Agnes Martin
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.
Agnes Martin
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.
Agnes Martin
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.
Agnes Martin
Fulfill your potential. That's the way to happiness.
Agnes Martin
Beauty is the mystery of life. It is not in the eye, it is in the mind.
Agnes Martin
Doing what you were born to do … That's the way to be happy.
Agnes Martin
The worst thing you can think about when you're working is yourself.
Agnes Martin
That which takes us by surprise-moments of happiness-that is inspiration.
Agnes Martin
I paint with my back to the world
Agnes Martin
I'm very careful not to have ideas, because they're inaccurate.
Agnes Martin
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.
Agnes Martin
Inspiration is there all the time. For everyone whose mind is not clouded over with thoughts whether they realize it or not.
Agnes Martin
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 respond
Agnes Martin
You can't make a perfect painting. We can see perfection in our minds. But we can't make a perfect painting.
Agnes Martin
My paintings are certainly nonobjective. They're just horizontal lines. There's not any hint of nature. And still everybody responds, I think.
Agnes Martin
My paintings are not about what is seen. They are about what is known forever in the mind.
Agnes Martin
