Modern art is what happens when painters stop looking at girls and persuade themselves that they have a better idea.
- John Ciardi

Art produces ugly things which frequently become beautiful with time. Fashion ... produces beautiful things which always become ugly with time.
- Jean Cocteau

Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.
- Leonardo da Vinci

There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, thanks to their art and intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.

- Pablo Picasso

Art... must do something more than give pleasure: it should relate to our own life so as to increase our energy of spirit.
- Sir Kenneth Clark

Great art picks up where nature ends.
- Marc Chagall