Josef Albers (1888-1976, artist)
"Amateurism is an emptiness and I accept it because it has no preconceived ideas or rules to be applied." (A Conversation with Josef Albers, John Holloway and John Weil, Leonardo, 1970)
Nicholas Carr (1959-now, journalist)
"What we tell ourselves about the blogosphere - that it's open and democratic and egalitarian, that it stands in contrast and in opposition to the controlled and controlling mass media - is an innocent fraud." (The Great Unread, 2006)
Vint Cert (1984-now, internet pioneer)
"The closer you look at something, the more complex it seems to be." (AZQuotes.com)
Hans Haacke (1936-now, artist)
"...museums are managers of consciousness. They give us an interpretation of history, of how to view the world and locate ourselves in it. They are, if you want to put it in positive terms, great educational institutions. If you want to put it in negative terms, they are propaganda machines. They're both." (Quoted in Portraits by Michael Kimmelman)
Jürgen Habermas (1929-2026, philosopher)
"The avant-garde understands itself as invading unknown territory, exposing itself to the dangers of sudden, shocking encounters, conquering an as yet unoccupied future... The avant-garde must find a direction in a landscape into which no one seems to have yet ventured." (AZQuotes.com)
Donald Judd (1928-1994, artist)
"The history of art and art's condition at any time are pretty messy. They should stay that way. One can think about them as much as one likes, but they won't become neater; neatness isn't even a very good reason for thinking about them. A lot of things just can't be connected." (Local History, 1964)
Joseph Kosuth (1945-now, artist)
"I go through hundreds of these amassed quotes from my own research and that of my staff, make my choices, and then continually add them in relation to the quotes I have already selected. The surplus meaning that is constructed by using the words of others in conjunction with each other, which is my goal, is a far more delicate operation than it may seem." (Wikiquote.org)
Agnes Martin (1912-2004, artist)
"Inspiration is there all the time. For everyone whose mind is not clouded over with thoughts whether they realize it or not." (Exhibition: January 22 to March 1, 1973)
William Morris (1834-1896, textile designer)
"Simplicity of life, even the barest, is not a misery, but the very foundation of refinement..." (Speech, London, March 10, 1880)
Walter Ong (1912-2003, professor)
"More than any other single invention, writing has transformed human consciousness." (Orality and Literacy, 1982)
Edward Ruscha (1937-now, artist)
"I'm interested in glorifying something that we in the world would say doesn't deserve being glorified. Something that's forgotten, focused on as though it were some sort of sacred object." (Quoted in Ed Ruscha's Best Short by Leo Benedictus, 2008)
Hiroshi Sugimoto (1948-now, photographer)
"Art always helps religion; it became an inseparable phenomenon when humans beings gained consciousness." (AZQuotes.com)
