Pursuing Authenticity

Indelible words from artists that inspire creativity and excellence.

[pursuingauthenticity]

The strongest principle of growth lies in the human choice.

George Eliot

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There are some cases in which the sense of injury breeds not the will to inflict injuries and climb over them as a ladder, but a hatred of all injury.

George Eliot

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Our deeds still travel with us from afar, and what we have been makes us what we are.

George Eliot

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Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.

George Eliot

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It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them.

George Eliot

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What do we live for, if not to make life less difficult for each other?

George Eliot

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Artist of the Week: George Eliot/Mary Ann Evans “It is never too late to be what you might have been.” -George Eliot

[pursuingauthenticity]

I believe that art has been a vehicle for me that's been about enlightenment and expanding my own parameters, to give me courage to exercise the freedom that I have in life.

Jeff Koons

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I think you always, as an artist, feel like you would like to be more and more specific about your intent and your interests.

Jeff Koons

[pursuingauthenticity]

If you have an idea, you have to move on it, to make a gesture. Drawing is an immediate way of articulating that idea - of making a gesture that is both physical and intellectual.

Jeff Koons

[pursuingauthenticity]

For me, art really starts with acceptance, self trust. Wherever you come to with art, it's perfect. You don't have to come with anything. What you bring to something is the art. That's where it's found. It's found within you.

Jeff Koons

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I like to look at everything and appreciate seeing the different things that have meaning to people.

Jeff Koons

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When people make judgments they close all the possibility around them.

Jeff Koons

[pursuingauthenticity]

Artist of the week: Jeff Koons “Art to me is a humanitarian act and I believe that there is a responsibility that art should somehow be able to effect mankind, to make the word a better place.” - Jeff Koons

[art21]

“An artwork can transport a person in a soulful, rich way without having any fear of punishment—or Hell, or sin, or any of those other good things.”

—Artist Mary Heilmann, seen here at work in her Bridgehampton, New York studio as featured in ART21’s Fantasy episode, reflecting upon the relationship between her work and her childhood

WATCH: Mary Heilmann in Fantasy [U.S. only] | Additional videos

IMAGES: Mary Heilmann in her studio, Bridgehampton, New York, 2008. Production stills from the ART21 Art in the Twenty-First Century Season 5 episode, Fantasy. © ART21, Inc. 2009.

[art21]

“I wanted to develop my own language, and the minute I started performing, I began to invent in a different way—through my body movements.” —Joan Jonas

In a new episode from the ART21 Exclusive series, artist Joan Jonas—who represents the U.S. at this year’s La Biennale di Venezia​ in an exhibition presented by MIT List Visual Arts Center​—recalls the beginnings of her performance work from the late-1960s and early-1970s.

For Songdelay (1973), seen here, Jonas worked with artists such as Gordon Matta-Clark, Carol Gooden, Tina Girouard, Steve Paxton, and Penelope. “We all helped each other and worked together,” recounts the artist, “and people really enjoyed being in other people’s works.”

WATCH: Joan Jonas: New York Performances

IMAGES: Joan Jonas, Songdelay, video stills, 1973. Featured in the ART21 Exclusive episode, Joan Jonas: New York Performances. Artwork courtesy of the artist and Electronic Arts Intermix, New York.

[art21]

“I kind of just steal the compositions, but I obliterate everything else. The details are gone. Nothing is stable. Everything is moving and dripping and messy.” —Diana Al-Hadid

Watch artist Diana Al-Hadid borrow from Old Master and Italian Renaissance paintings to create a singularly hybrid artwork—transforming brushstrokes on a wall into architectural sculpture—in a new film from the ART21 New York Close Up series.

WATCH: Diana Al-Hadid Plays the Classics

IMAGES (ROWS 1, 5): Diana Al-Hadid. Installation view of Ground and Figures at OHWOW Gallery, Los Angeles, 2015.

IMAGES (ROWS 2–4, 6): Artist Diana Al-Hadid in her studio, Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY, 2015.

ALL IMAGES: Production stills from the ART21 New York Close Up film, Diana Al-Hadid Plays the Classics. Artwork courtesy of the artist and OHWOW Gallery, Los Angeles. Photos © ART21, Inc. 2015.