MM N 38. Aphorisms related to art

Aphorisms related to art.

MM N 38, p. 1

A good picture with 10 holes
is better to have than
ten poor paintings without holes

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I am reluctant to write about my art
It easily becomes a programme
All Programmes are
destined to be abandoned – just like
all associations and alliances –
– They hang about one’s feet
like heavy chains

    All programmes are
doomed in advance
Like chains around one’s feet

    Everything becomes wavy and clouded
before the eyes of the condemned man on his
way to the scaffold – then his gaze catches sight
of a bud – a flower – His thoughts fasten onto and

cling to them How strangely yellow the flower
is – how peculiar the bud

MM N 38, p. 2

    A good picture with 10
holes is better than 10 poor
pictures without holes

    A good picture with
a poor primer
is better than 10 poor pictures
with good primers
A Good picture never disappears

    A brilliant thought does not die

    A charcoal line on a masonry wall
can be more valuable art than
many a large picture in
costly frames

MM N 38, p. 3

Most of Leonardo da Vinci’s pictures
have been destroyed – yet they live
on – a brilliant thought
does not die

    The War

    The Throes of Death

    Bathing Men

MM N 38, p. 4

    A charcoal drawing on a wall
can be a greater work of art than
the most accomplished painting

    Many painters work
so cautiously and meticulously
with the primer – and with
the execution of the picture – in order to
preserve it for eternity – that
they lose their flame
And it happens that the painting becomes
so tedious and poor that it
ends up in a dark attic
– Even if a bright
expressionist picture
fades in colour with time
– it can retain
its soul and intensity – even
if only one line remains
it at least dies in a beautiful state
– It has at least brought
new aims for painters with
other ambitions