Bram van Velde Quotes
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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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I am well aware that a painting must inevitably be a bizarre, incomprehensible thing.
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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.
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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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There's a perpetual duel going on between the world of the spirit and the world of things. Although the one only has meaning in relation to the other.
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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 difficult thing is not to want anything.
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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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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 most difficult thing is when you can’t do anything. When you just have to wait.
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I am in the void. Nothing to hang on to.
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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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I can’t say anything. There are no words.
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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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Each painting is linked to a fundamental drama.
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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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Artists don’t live in the everyday world. That’s why people think they’re an odd bunch.
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Life is wrecked by living.
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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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Each time it’s an attempt to get there. To get to see. To get where you can see.
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A painting is not a battle against other people, but against oneself.
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What makes a painting fascinating is its sincerity. Sincerity is such a rare thing. Most people don't dare to be sincere.
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I have to try to see where seeing is no longer possible, where visibility is gone.
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I don’t set out to speak a comprehensible language. But my language is authentic.