Quotes on Art by Carmen Cicero
“I was greatly surprised and very deeply impressed when I entered college by finding out how profound and how rewarding and involving art was. Up until then, I thought that the status of an artist was determined by how well he could represent what he or she saw. My introduction to the work of Picasso and Miró and other modern artists altered my previous perception that painters had to exactly duplicate the real world. My high regard for these teachers intellectually and their knowledge of art in general enticed me because when someone is very knowledgeable and they start talking about a given subject you think to yourself, ‘I better consider this.’ I was rebellious against Picasso at the time. I thought he was a charlatan. This was many moons ago, in the 1940s. But the more I studied and learned, the more I realized how remarkable Picasso was. I became more deeply involved in painting and began to love it. At one point I said, ‘This is my life. This is it.’ It wasn’t even a choice. It was a case of my being totally absorbed in it. So, I built a studio in my house and painted every chance I could.”
“After a lifetime of studying art, I came to the same kind of conclusion that deKooning did. ‘The only definite thing I can say about art is that it is a word.’ Art is intangible; it is almost impossible to define. So, when I talk about art, I am expressing my opinion, an educated opinion, true, but in the last analysis, I am not much different than that uneducated man who repeats the old cliché: ‘I don’t know nothin’ about art, but I know what I like.’ Well, I know something about art, but I still come out in the same place: I know what I like. And when it comes to formulating theories about what’s good and what’s bad and what’s significant, well, I don’t believe in theories or ideologies. To put it simply, my interest is painting and my interest is aesthetics. What I love is what engages me, puts me in a state where time stands still, puts me in a state that’s kind of a spell. Anyone that knows art knows this. It’s the same with music.”
“I used to feel that visual arts, music, literature and dance were separate and distinct, but I don’t feel that way anymore. Now I see a strong commonality in the arts. This insight came to me not in an academic or intellectual way but through an emotional experience…a true epiphany. Some years ago, I was learning a beautiful melody written by Billy Strayhorn called Lotus Blossom. At the same time, I was reading Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. When I sat down that evening to look at a new book about Albert Pinkham Ryder, I was struck by a very profound insight, all of these works of art produced the same feeling, a deep feeling but one that is hard to define. Some call it ‘the art experience’ or perhaps a mystical experience. One thing is clear to me: this hard-to-define phenomenon was common to all the arts.”
“Music gives you thrills up your spine. Painting does as well, but with music it’s more visceral, particularly if you’re playing it. The great arts, when they reach a sublime level, produce a magical atmosphere and a spell that is extraordinarily thrilling. You get this in literature, of course. It occurs with Joseph Conrad, Thomas Hardy, Herman Melville—these are a few of my favorites. It is also apparent in some of the short stories of James Joyce and Thomas Mann. And I love the Russians, Dostoyevsky, Chekov, Tolstoy and Turgenov, along with Kafka and so many others. I read a good deal and I also listen to books on tape.”
“When I first saw the work of the Abstract Expressionists, I was beguiled by the audacity! Where did they get the chutzpah, the originality, the courage for these powerful paintings? Motherwell was a truly great artist. He was very intelligent, very articulate, he had a good sense of humor…we had some good laughs together.”
“The way I’m painting now is involved with natural color, mood, and content; it’s complicated to put all these factors together like some grand jigsaw puzzle. It’s very engaging. I didn’t have to deal with this when I was painting in an abstract manner, although when I look back, that was hard too. Figurative art is hard; portraits are hard; they’re all hard. Making art is hard. You have a feeling and you find a metaphor for what you’re feeling. If you’re an artist, the metaphor is visual. If you’re a musician, the metaphor is sound.” [2000s]
“In my lifetime, I worked in three fundamental ways: Abstract Expressionism, Figurative Expressionism, and Visionary, which is what I call my recent work—it should be noted that I do not belong to any school of painting, nor do I want to. It is difficult to speak about one’s work; most of us are biased in favor of our own achievements. We see the art world through the lens of the art that we are currently involved in. Moreover, words are inadequate to explain something that is essentially visual—sort of like trying to explain a poem in other words. Painters know that the most important part of painting remains silent, intangible, mute. Nonetheless, we keep on talking. As de Kooning said, ‘The only definite thing I can say about art is that it is a word.’”
“Overriding everything in art are the aesthetics. Color, line, composition—these are the elements that last. I would like to say something about composition. When the composition is right, when all the elements such as line, color, space, and so forth, come together then the painting seems to hold still, to come to rest. Only then, can that magic spell emerge. A perfect example of this would be daVinci’s Mona Lisa. The composition is perfect, at rest, still. The image is almost apparitional; unfortunately, this work of art has become so popular, so talked about, so venerated, that the beauty of the work is hard to see through the verbiage.”
“It’s not what’s new; it’s what’s good. The significant thing about art is that the artist reveals a deep inner truth—a unique personal vision of reality. This deeply felt inner vision is what touches humanity in general.”
“When I was teaching, I always tried to find ways to put complex ideas into simple words, using anecdotes and analogies. I would call these ideas my intellectual frozen food packages. I think that many college professors do this. It is not a bad thing. It can be very helpful. I began writing down some of these thoughts. Many of them were about life in general. I call them my great words of wisdom. A bit pretentious, perhaps, but then any intellectual assertion can be. Here’s one I like: It is always good to have a positive attitude, especially if you don’t know what you are doing. And how about ‘believing in an ideology is like believing in a baseball team; you cheer even when your team is wrong.’ Here’s another: ‘if you are going to cry the blues, get a good rhythm section.’ I like this one: ‘it helps to find your partner’s idiosyncrasies amusing.’ A musician friend of mine came up with: ‘from aptitude to attitude to certitude to platitude.’ That’s a good one. A group of artists were sitting around talking about ethics when one of the poorest among us said ‘ethics? Your ethics depends upon your economics.’ There is a lot of truth in that. Also, ‘personality is more important than nationality’ and, finally, ‘the secret of happiness is courage.’”
“A painting is ethical when the artist has a deep feeling within and reveals that feeling uncompromisingly. When you compromise on some element in the work, you’re not meeting your own ethical standards. What you have on the canvas is ethical if it’s consistent with the truth within. If you are a big person, you have a big truth. Joseph Albers said something interesting regarding ethics: ‘I consider ethics and aesthetics to be one.’”
Material excerpted from Deborah Forman, “A Conversation with Carmen Cicero.” The Art of Carmen Cicero. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd., 2013.
