Bram van Velde - Artists Quotes

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Everyone cheats. Only artists don't. They don't fool people and they aren't fooled. They are outside all that. Nobody can understand them.

Bram van Velde
Art is not for the personal satisfaction of one or the other, but art wants to return all what's in life... Art wants to give back everything what's in our lives. The more comprehensive the artist stands in life the more powerful his work will speak, and therefore a work of art is a measure of the mental size of his creator.

Bram van Velde
An artist's life is all very fine and moving. But only in retrospect. In books.

Bram van Velde
Picasso.... the master.... being a master: 'I don't search, I find' [a famous quote of Picasso, where he criticize the 'searching' artists].. the master, the mastery.... Producing, producing... He [Picasso!] only knows how to work, can't do anything else. What lost souls!... The great risk is producing for its own sake. You must never force things. You just have to wait.

Bram van Velde
Life and mind are continuously in conflict with each other. I want happiness, security. I won't reach that by considerations of my mind; on the contrary they will lead to a certain despair of the inner person. Not what he thinks engages the artist, but what he feels.

Bram van Velde
Artists don't live in the everyday world. That's why people think they're an odd bunch.

Bram van Velde
My work is independent of my will. My best works are created when driven by an inner strength. This has nothing to do with my will. It is that immediate spontaneity of my intense way of living that makes the difference between my work and a lot of other artists who make art works with their mind.

Bram van Velde
When you cross any border there is always an uneasy moment when you feel yourself automatically an enemy. Artists don't belong to any group or country... When you are living the truth, the world no longer exists, events become unimportant. But the way of truth is not easy.... if you are on the side of truth, you have no power. That's why you are always defeated. The power, all the power, is on the side of the world... I have been completely absorbed in my adventure. No country, no family, no ties. I didn't exist anymore. I just had to press on.

Bram van Velde
The artist is living a secret that he has to make manifest

Bram van Velde
Most people's lives are governed by willpower. An artist is someone who has no will.

Bram van Velde
Artists who are the defenders of true life become phonies. That's the perfidious thing about this world. Society turns anyone with a bit of life inside them into a medical case.

Bram van Velde
The beauty other people create is not for the artists. Artists have to live alone.

Bram van Velde