78 Quotes by Ben Shahn

The natural reaction of the artist will be strongly towards bringing man back into focus as the center of importance.

Forms in art arise from the impact of idea upon material... so that thinking and belief and attitudes may endure as actual things.

To abstract is to draw out the essence of a matter.

Form is the shape of content...

It may be a point of great pride to have a Van Gogh on the living room wall, but the prospects of having Van Gogh himself in the living room would put a great many devoted art lovers to rout.

I confess that Roy [Stryker] was a little bit dictatorial in his editing and he ruined quite a number of my pictures, which he stopped doing later. He used to punch a hole through a negative. Some of them were incredibly valuable. He didn't understand at the time.

Art almost always has its ingredient of impudence, its flouting of established authority, so that it may substitute its own authority and its own enlightenment.

The artist is likely to be looked upon with some uneasiness by the more conservative members of society.

Being an artist is not only what you do, but how you live your life.