“ Landscape is to American painting what sex and psychoanalysis are to the American novel. Robert Hughes
“ The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation p Robert Hughes
“ What has our culture lost in 1980 that the avant-garde had in 1890? Ebullience, idealism, confidence, the belief that there was plenty of territory to explore, and above all the sense that art, in the… Robert Hughes
“ Machines were the ideal metaphor for the central pornographic fantasy of the nineteenth century, rape followed by gratitude. Robert Hughes
“ Indeed, the idea that doubt can be heroic, if it is locked into a structure as grand as that of the paintings of Cezanne's old age, is one of the keys to our century. A touchstone of modernity itself. Robert Hughes
“ When the war (WWI) finally ended it was necessary for both sides to maintain, indeed even to inflate, the myth of sacrifice so that the whole affair would not be seen for what it was: a meaningless wa… Robert Hughes
“ The World's Fair audience tended to think of the machine as unqualifiedly good, strong, stupid and obedient. They thought of it as a giant slave, an untiring steel Negro, controlled by Reason in a wor… Robert Hughes
“ Essentially, perspective is a form of abstraction. It simplifies the relationship between eye, brain and object. It is an ideal view, imagined as being seen by a one-eyed, motionless person who is cle… Robert Hughes
“ In one sense, (Duchamp's) “The Large Glass” is a glimpse into Hell; a peculiarly modernist Hell of repetition and loneliness. Robert Hughes
“ Nevertheless, what was made in the hope of transforming the world need not be rejected because it failed to do so – otherwise, one would also have to throw out a good deal of the greatest painting and… Robert Hughes
“ In the Somme valley, the back of language broke. It could no longer carry its former meanings. World War I changed the life of words and images in art, radically and forever. It brought our culture in… Robert Hughes
“ What does one prefer? An art that struggles to change the social contract, but fails? Or one that seeks to please and amuse, and succeeds? Robert Hughes
“ The basic project of art is always to make the world whole and comprehensible, to restore it to us in all its glory and its occasional nastiness, not through argument but through feeling, and then to… Robert Hughes
“ Political stress is always apt to shrink the private arena and attach it on to the public Robert Hughes
