Barnett Newman
(1905-60)

Painting should give a man a sense of place - the onlooker in front of my paintings knows he's there and has a sense of his own scale.

Barnett Newman 

Almost fifteen years ago Harold Rosenberg challenged me to explain what one of my paintings could possibly mean to the world.  My answer was that if he and others could read it properly it would mean the end of all state capitalism and totalitarianism.  That answer still goes.
[quoted in Art History: March 1990]

Louis Nizer 
(English lawyer)
(1902 - 1994)

A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist.  

Emil Nolde
(1867-1956)

The futher one can remove oneself from nature, yet remain natural, the greater one's art.