brettworks

“New ideas often seem to go against common sense” (57).

“You can’t have art without play. Even a scientist has a sense of play. And that allows for surprises, the unexpected” (69).

“Painters must, to a certain extent, analyze their work afterwards. I’m sure the Cubists didn’t plan it, they didn’t down and say, ‘Well, perspective has to be broken, that’s what the problem is.’ It’s a groping, they’re groping slowly and in different ways.” (69)

“If you set ups rule about anything, another artist will come along and break it” (72).

“A two-dimensional surface can easily be copied on two dimensions. It’s three dimensions that are hard to get on two; you have to stylize it, interpret it” (73).

“It’s the fact that it takes us time to see it that makes the space” (76).

“There’s a point where you’ve got to interpret the world, not make a replica of it” (102).

“Looking is a positive act. You have to do it deliberately” (103).

“The eye is part of the mind” (105).

“There are many ways of translating three dimensions into marks on a flat surface” (109).

“Medieval artists often used isometric perspective, as did Chinese, Japanese, Persian, and Indian ones. The idea that those artists didn’t get perspective right is ridiculous. There is no such thing as ‘right’ perspective” (109).

“Perspective is really about us, not the object perceived” (109).

“Whatever your medium is you have to respond to it. I have always enjoyed swapping mediums about (115).

“A drawing or painting may have hours, days, weeks even years in it” (115).

“Everything is in flow. That is one reason why a drawing is so interesting, as opposed to a photograph. I like that remark of Cézanne’s: ‘You have got to keep painting because it is constantly altering.’ Well, it is actually, because we are” (129).

“The camera sees geometrically. We don’t. We see partly geometrically but also psychologically” (139).

“The hand, heart, and eye are more complex than any computer” (161).

“I want now to spend my time quietly doing my work. I have got a lot to do” (172).

David Hockney, The World According to David Hockney (2024)