Allen Tate Quotes

Works of art, in my opinion, are the only objects in the material universe to possess internal order, and that is why, though I don't believe that only art matters, I do believe in Art for Art's sake.

Art indeed is a term referring to the social source and to the social utility of creative acts.

Art for art's sake? I should think so, and more so than ever at the present time. It is the one orderly product which our middling race has produced. It is the cry of a thousand sentinels, the echo from a thousand labyrinths, it is the lighthouse which cannot be hidden. It is the best evidence we can have of our dignity.

I know that the arts are important. I'm not denying that, but I can't associate myself with all the claptrap that goes on around it.

Art is an end in itself; its values are intrinsic.

Art can be very political but that can't be the purpose of art, it can't be the driving force. It isn't with any of the books that I love, anyway.

I realize that every picture isn't a work of art.

Art is good, bad, boring, ugly, useful to us or not.

Art is Art. Everything else is everything else.

Unlike fashion, art isn't applied. It doesn't have to serve anybody. It doesn't have to be there for any other reason than to give an impression of what the world is about.

Such discussions help us very little to enjoy what has been well done in art or poetry, to discriminate between what is more and what is less excellent in them, or to use words like beauty, excellence, art, poetry, with a more precise meaning than they would otherwise have.

The philistine provides the best definition of art. Anything that makes him rage is first class.

I don't mean this, but I'm going to say it anyway. I don't really think of pop art and serious art as being that far apart.

All art is quite useless.

If gaming were seen as an art, the important question would be not whether games are good for us but whether they are good, full stop.

The work of art may have a moral effect, but to demand moral purpose from the artist is to make him ruin his work.

There is only one Art, whose sole criterion is the power, the authenticity, the revelatory insight, the courage and suggestiveness with which it seeks its truth. ... Thus, from the standpoint of the work and its worth it is irrelevant to which political ideas the artist as a citizen claims allegiance, which ideas he would like to serve with his work or whether he holds any such ideas at all.

The masterpiece should appear as the flower to the painter - perfect in its bud as in its bloom - with no reason to explain its presence - no mission to fulfill - a joy to the artist, a delusion to the philanthropist - a puzzle to the botanist - an accident of sentiment and alliteration to the literary man.

A work of art, so far as it is a work of art, cannot - whatever the artist's personal intention - advocate anything at all.

I am afraid that as evangelicals, we think that a work of art only has value if we reduce it to a tract.

If art is any good, it has so much of a longer trajectory than one night. Contemporary art is separate from art openings. In the end, it depends on the strength of ideas in each piece.

Not all art is great; most of it's rubbish.

There's an audience for all kinds of great art.

There is no reason for me to show my collection in New York, because it's not about craft and technique there.

If what you want to do is make good art, decide what's good and try to imitate it.