I don’t paint to live, I live to paint.
Meaning of the quote
Willem de Kooning, a famous American artist, is saying that painting is not just something he does to make a living. Instead, painting is his true passion and the reason he lives. He paints because he loves it, not because he has to. His art is a central part of who he is and how he chooses to spend his life.
About Willem de Kooning
Willem de Kooning was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist who rose to fame as part of the New York School after World War II. Born in Rotterdam, he moved to the United States in 1926 and became a US citizen in 1962. De Kooning’s bold, energetic paintings made him one of the most renowned artists of the 20th century.
More quotes from Willem de Kooning
The attitude that nature is chaotic and that the artist puts order into it is a very absurd point of view, I think. All that we can hope for is to put some order into ourselves.
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The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all your time.
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My interest in desperation lies only in that sometimes I find myself having become desperate. Very seldom do I start out that way. I can see of course that, in the abstract, thinking and all activity is rather desperate.
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Art never seems to make me peaceful or pure.
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I don’t paint to live, I live to paint.
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Whatever an artist’s personal feelings are, as soon as an artist fills a certain area on the canvas or circumscribes it, he becomes historical. He acts from or upon other artists.
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An artist is forced by others to paint out of his own free will.
Dutch painter (1904-1997)
I make pictures and someone comes in and calls it art.
Dutch painter (1904-1997)
Style is a fraud. I always felt the Greeks were hiding behind their columns.
Dutch painter (1904-1997)