Chris Burden
[Artist, b. 1946, Boston, Massachusetts, d. 2015, Los Angeles.]

 It’s about trying to frame something. And draw attention to it and say, “Here’s the beauty in this. I’m going to put a frame around it, and I think this is beautiful.” That’s what artists do. It’s really a pointing activity. 

Lewis Baltz
[Photographer, b. 1945, Newport Beach, California, d. 2014, Paris.]

 The world was already in the condition of art, waiting to be noticed as such. As Robert Irwin famously said, “I feel like a man sitting beside a river selling water.” 

Bertolt Brecht
[Dramatist, director and poet, b. 1898, Augsburg, Germany, d. 1956, East Berlin.]

 Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it. 

Jerry Uelsmann
[Photographer, b. 1934, Detroit, Michigan, lives in Gainesville, Florida.]

 The goal of the artist is not to resolve life’s mysteries, but to deepen them. 

Roman Opalka
[Artist, b. 1931, Hocquincourt, France, d. 2011, Rome.]

 Art has a lot in common with madness. After all, why should one get involved with art? You can live normally like everyone else—which is to say, as stupidly as everyone else. 

Frederick Sommer
[Photographer, b. 1905, Angri, Italy, d. 1999, Prescott, Arizona.]

 Art and accident are one. Art accepts what it finds. 

Christian Boltanski
[Artist, b. 1944, Paris, lives in Paris.]

 I think that all human activity is stupid. Artistic activity is also stupid, but you can see it more clearly. 

Frederick Sommer
[Photographer, b. 1905, Angri, Italy, d. 1999, Prescott, Arizona.]

 Art is the splendor of reality before everything has become meaning. 
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