Useful Art Quotes

My concern is never art, but always what art can be used for.

Artists have to be useful. They have to fill a role.

People do not inquire concerning a Stranger, What is he? but What can he do? If he has any useful art, he is welcome, and if he exercises it, and behaves well, he will be respected by all that know him; but a mere Man of Quality, who on that account, wants to live upon the Public, by some Office or Salary, who will be despised and disregarded.

I am for an art that tells you the time of day, or where such and such a street is. I am for an art that helps old ladies across the street.

Most arts require long study and application, but the most useful art of all, that of pleasing, requires only the desire.

I'm creating art that can be healing. Art that can make you feel like you're not alone, like you're not an outsider. Art that is useful.

When I make my work, I am making what I hope to be something functional - a space for individual contemplation and reflection. I want my art to be useful.

Graffiti ultimately wins out over proper art because it becomes part of your city, it' s a tool; "I'll meet you in that pub, you know, the one opposite that wall with a picture of a monkey holding a chainsaw". I mean, how much more useful can a painting be than that?

...if photos can reproduce the world more perfectly than any painter, can capture an instant, a look, a gesture, then what makes a painting good anymore? Painting subverts this subversion of its traditional nature by redefining itself - art is idea, not simply skillful execution. So, a work can be crudely made, or even machine made - but it has to be practically and functionally useless.

I want to make art that is helpful, that's useful to people, that starts fruitful conversations. That makes you think about a question that you hadn't considered before.

I'm not really interested in creating things to be seen inside a private gallery. I'm interested in creating things that are all around us, that engage us. I just find the things that I respond to are useful.

In fine arts, when you make a painting, it's just a painting. But if you make a painting in the entertainment industry, it can be an album cover or a t-shirt or a logo. I like that entertainment has this usefulness - that it's ultimately trying to make a bunch of people feel something, and to think about life and be able to use things that were so simple and direct but potentially have a really powerful effect.

As an artist, you tend to identify your sphere of influence and try to employ that as best you can to hopefully be useful.

In my opinion, he only may be truly said to live and enjoy his being who is engaged in some laudable pursuit, and acquires a name by some illustrious action, or useful art.