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A curved line is the loveliest distance between two points. (Anonymous)
The line that describes the beautiful is elliptical. It has simplicity and constant change. It cannot be described by a compass, and it changes direction at every one of its points. (Rudolf Arnheim)
Every single line means something. (Jean-Michel Basquiat)
- from the lecture Portriature, 1907...
Line is line, space is space - wherever found. The consideration of them is necessary to every work of art, and no such work can exist without them. (Cecilia Beaux)
When a man in a forest thinks he is going forward in a straight line, in reality he is going in a circle, I did my best to go in a circle, hoping to go in a straight line. (Samuel Beckett)
Speaking of line, what artist of line was ever able to find more depth and volume than Hirschfeld? He was an illustrator and a caricaturist, but first and foremost, an artist. (Bill Cannon)
Line... is the most important part of any painting. (Lyle Carbajal)
Ingres was one of those artists to whom the outline was something sacred and magical, and the reason is that it was the means of reconciling the major conflict in his art, the conflict between abstraction and sensibility. (Sir Kenneth Clark)
The difference between what we see and a sheet of white paper with a few thin lines on it is very great. Yet this abstraction is one which we seem to have adopted almost instinctively at an early stage in our development, not only in Neolithic graffiti but in early Egyptian drawings. And in spite of its abstract character, the outline is responsive to the least tremor of sensibility. (Sir Kenneth Clark)
There is a curious tendency in the human mind to imagine it sees a continuation of any line when it knows that the object is continuous, and this is a tendency against which the artist should be particularly on his guard. (John Collier)
Straight lines go too quickly to appreciate the pleasures of the journey. They rush straight to their target and then die in the very moment of their triumph without having thought, loved, suffered or enjoyed themselves. (Rene Crevel)
Broken lines do not know what they want. With their caprices they cut time up, abuse routes, slash the joyous flowers and split the peaceful fruits with their corners. (Rene Crevel)
The song of the curved line is called happiness. (Rene Crevel)
A smile is a curve that sets everything straight. (Phyllis Diller)
The character, position and weight of an object are in the edge. (Harvey Dunn)
Line is a rich metaphor for the artist. It denotes not only boundary, edge or contour, but is an agent for location, energy, and growth. It is literally movement and change - life itself. (Lance Esplund)
Can a line be so important? (Edward J. Fraughton)
The essence of drawing is the line exploring space. (Andy Goldsworthy)
The breaking wave and the muscle as it contracts obey the same law. Delicate line gathers the body's total strength in a bold balance. Shall my soul meet so severe a curve, journeying on its way to form? (Dag Hammarskjold)
Get the few main lines and see what lines they call out. (Robert Henri)
Lines are results, do not draw them for themselves. (Robert Henri)
Count on big lines to express your ideas. (Robert Henri)
I never met a straight line I did not like. (Carmen Herrera)
-while out with Robert Genn in his floating studio...
Take a look at the line of that mountain range over there. If you plot that on a bar scale and connect the dots, you'll have yourself a pretty good tune. All you need is a nice line. (Ted Hesketh)
Before he did all those lovely line drawings, Matisse would make really detailed charcoal drawings and tear them up. He wouldn't leave them about... I understand what he was doing: discovering what's there... to make the line meaningful, to find a linear solution... (David Hockney)
Straight lines vary only in length, and therefore are least ornamental. (William Hogarth)
The serpentine line, or the line of grace, by its waving and winding at the same time different ways, leads the eye in a pleasing manner along the continuity of its variety. (William Hogarth)
Compare constantly, lines and angles... Hold looking-glass before your model and your drawing. Take a second's glance only, and see if the impression be the same. If it be not, ask, 'What is the difference?' (William Morris Hunt)
Everything starts from a dot. (Wassily Kandinsky)
A line is a dot that went for a walk. (Paul Klee)
An active line on a walk, moving freely, without goal. A walk for a walk's sake. (Paul Klee)
I am against the line and all its consequences: contours, forms, composition. All paintings of whatever sort, figuratives or abstract, seem to me like prison windows in which the lines, precisely, are the bars. (Yves Klein)
The permanence of ink encourages one to "go for it," to try to put the line right where it should be... continued attempts to place lines accurately build the eye-hand coordination necessary for sketching. (Paul Laseau)
A curved line for beauty, a straight line for duty. (Violet Linton)
A line is a visual trail of energy that has been drawn across a surface, and is a manifestation of the life energy of the person that made it. (Mick Maslen)
Remember, a line cannot exist alone; it always brings a companion along. Do remember that one line does nothing; it is only in relation to another that it creates a volume. (Henri Matisse)
It is possible that, through horizontal and vertical lines constructed with awareness, but not with calculation, led by high intuition, and brought to harmony and rhythm, these basic forms of beauty, supplemented if necessary by other direct lines or curves, can become a work of art, as strong as it is true. (Piet Mondrian)
-on etching...
I use as sensitive a line as possible when I draw on the plate. (Jay Moore)
I sometimes just take the line for a walk... (Jenny Newbound)
It is not the right angle that attracts me, nor the straight line, hard and inflexible, created by man. What attracts me is the free and sensual curve - the curve that I find in the mountains of my country, in the sinuous course of its rivers, in the body of the beloved woman. (Oscar Niemeyer)
It is what is painted between the outlines that makes the difference between merely competent painting and really meaningful art. (Philip Pearlstein)
Where the lines of energy flow, in a landscape or a human body, information is given to the eye, and we interpret these in our own way. (Gillian Redwood)
Every line tells its own story, even the very tentative ones. (Gillian Redwood)
We don't need shading or even perspective and we can understand the image. It's all in the placement of the lines of the work; the pressure and direction of the line. (Rick Rotante)
If you remove these lines in the painting, the colors are no longer effective. (Henri Rousseau)
The interest and the feelings are not due to colors; the lines of a painting that move us move us even more in a print. (Henri Rousseau)
Lines create an experience beyond the literal. There is so much potential in losing and finding the line again. Like letting go and being awakened. Lines, like music, create potential for mystery. (Linda Saccoccio)
Line is the most powerful device of drawing. (John Sloan)
Get into the habit of thinking that you are drawing two forms, one on either side of the line. (Leon Polk Smith)
Line is so versatile – you can do a fine, tight, closely observed description or simply put a line around an idea – like a cartoonist. (Stan Smith)
Feng shui has its attractions - the whole attention to views, to lines of sight. (Jim Spear)
The frightening thought that what you draw may become a building makes for reasoned lines. (Saul Steinberg)
My line is childlike but not childish. It is very difficult to fake... to get that quality you need to project yourself into the child's line. It has to be felt. (Cy Twombly)
What is straight? A line can be straight, or a street, but the human heart, oh, no, it's curved like a road through mountains. (Tennessee Williams)
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