Bram van Velde Quotes
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However terrible it is, the thing never involves any sadness.
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The most difficult thing is not to want anything.
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Each painting is linked to a fundamental drama.
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In the first piece that you Beckett wrote about me circa 1946, you never once used the word color. That was important. I was struck by it.
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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.
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I can't say or explain anything. Pictures don’t come from your head but from life... I am always looking for life. All that escapes thought or will-power.
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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.
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The most difficult thing is when you can’t do anything. When you just have to wait.
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I am well aware that a painting must inevitably be a bizarre, incomprehensible thing.
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Each of my paintings is a cycle. It’s like existence, life. They are always in motion.. .If they were fixed and static, they would be false.
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I feel myself tied to life. To the immensity and complexity of life. Each painting is an impulse towards life.
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Painting, an oeuvre, is not such a big deal, it is so unimportant. But that’s precisely what makes it interesting.
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The beauty other people create is not for the artists. Artists have to live alone.
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The most incredible thing is that so much happens outside of the will. You can't will anything. Not even solitude is an act of will. You simply endure it. You must hold on until the very end, without weakening. You can do nothing else. But you must not believe that because you accept being nothing, you are anyone special.
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Painting lives only through the slide towards the unknown in oneself.
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It is true that other people can help you, and to lasting effect.. .If I hadn't had Beckett in 1940, I'm not sure I could have stood it. I am really not sure.. .At that time he he was driven by an extremely aggressive and fiery Irish spirit. That has lessened as time has gone on.. .I don't know anywhere in modern art any more faithful or more impressive picture of contemporary humanity than the one he offers us in 'The Unamable'.
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The greatest moment is when you realize that the painting you've just finished is nothing. When you manage to detach yourself from it.
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I have to try to see where seeing is no longer possible, where visibility is gone.
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Each time it’s an attempt to get there. To get to see. To get where you can see.
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Artists don’t live in the everyday world. That’s why people think they’re an odd bunch.
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I am in the void. Nothing to hang on to.
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A painting is not a battle against other people, but against oneself.
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I don’t set out to speak a comprehensible language. But my language is authentic.
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Painting is getting in touch with the truth. It's a matter of summoning up the vision I need.