Ad Reinhardt Quotes

My paintings are the last paintings one can make.

Art is too serious to be taken seriously.

The only and one way to say what abstract art or art-as-art is, is to say what it is not.

The ugliest spectacle is that of artists selling themselves. Art as a commodity is an ugly idea… The artist as businessman is uglier than the businessman as artist.

We all name ourselves. We call ourselves artists. Nobody asks us. Nobody says you are or you aren’t.

My painting represents the victory of the forces of darkness and peace over the powers of light and evil.

Now almost every artist outside of New York is connected with some school or some museum school, and even in New York the majority are. That’s an interesting fact when you take the idea of making money, making a living selling paintings. Only a dozen or two painters do that.

Painting cannot be the only activity of a mature artist.

There is a black which is old and a black which is fresh. Lustrous black and dull black, black in sunlight and black in shadow.

Only a bad artist thinks he has a good idea. A good artist does not need anything.

An artist who dedicates his life to art, burdens his art with his life, and his life with his art.

Art is not the spiritual side of business.