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The artist does not exist except as a personification, a figure of speech that represents the sum total of art itself. It is painting that is the genius of the painter, poetry of the poet, and a person is a creative artist to the extent that he participates in that genius.

Harold Rosenberg

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Harold Rosenberg
Age: 72 †
Born: 1906
Born: February 2
Died: 1978
Died: July 11
Art Critic
Art Historian
Journalist
Philosopher
Teacher
Writer
New York City
New York
Persons
Poet
Extent
Person
Poetry
Painter
Genius
Total
Painting
Figure
Creative
Figures
Artist
Except
Participates
Art
Speech
Personification
Doe
Exist
Represents

More quotes by Harold Rosenberg

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Both art and the artist lack identity and define themselves only through their encounter with each other.
Harold Rosenberg
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No dealer, curator, buyer or critic, or any existing combination of these, can be depended on to produce a reputation that is more than a momentary flurry.
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Co-operating critics comb the studios like big-league scouts, prepared to spot the art of the future and to take lead in establishing reputations. Art historians stand by ready with cameras and notebooks to make sure every novel detail is safe for the record. The tradition of the new has reduced all other traditions to triviality.
Harold Rosenberg
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Only conservatives believe that subversion is still being carried on in the arts and that society is being shaken by it.
Harold Rosenberg
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American time has stretched around the world. It has become the dominant tempo of modern history, especially of the history of Europe.
Harold Rosenberg
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Abstract art as it is conceived at present is a game bequeathed to painting and sculpture by art history. One who accepts its premises must consent to limit his imagination to a depressing casuistry regarding the formal requirements of modernism.
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Art has arrived at the paradox that tradition itself requires the occurrence of radical attacks on tradition.
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For the artist, fulfillment of self consists not in marching in the ranks of the liberators but in being entered in the roll of the Masters. The artist tends to find himself in the position of a deserter from his social group or, at best, one who collaborates, with secret reservations.
Harold Rosenberg
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In the United States, revolts tends to be directed against specific situations, rarely against the social structure as a whole.
Harold Rosenberg
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In reality, however, an artist is a product of art
Harold Rosenberg
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How much the work of an artist owes to an art movement to which he belongs can never be determined exactly, if only because the movement derives its character from the individual creations of its members.
Harold Rosenberg
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Only through apprehending, by means of present-day creations, how art is created, can the creations of other periods be genuinely appreciated.
Harold Rosenberg
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A painter with prestige among painters is bound to be discovered sooner or later.
Harold Rosenberg
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Loiter in the neighborhood of a problem. After a while a solution strolls by.
Harold Rosenberg
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The aim of every authentic artist is not to conform to the history of art, but to release himself from it in order to replace it with his own history.
Harold Rosenberg
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Kitsch is art that follows established rules in a time when all rules in art are put into question by each artist.
Harold Rosenberg
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Imitation of the art of earlier centuries, as that done by Picasso and Modigliani , is carried on not to perpetuate ancient values but to demonstrate that new aesthetic orders now prevail.
Harold Rosenberg
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The story of Americans is the story of arrested metamorphoses. Those who achieve success come to a halt and accept themselves as they are. Those who fail become resigned and accept themselves as they are.
Harold Rosenberg
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Whoever undertakes to create soon finds himself engaged in creating himself.
Harold Rosenberg
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No degree of dullness can safeguard a work against the determination of critics to find it fascinating.
Harold Rosenberg