Quotes for All
Modernism, rebelling against the ornament of the 19th century, limited the vocabulary of the designer. Modernism emphasized straight lines, eliminating the expressive S curve. This made it harder to communicate emotions through design. Eva Zeisel
Modern man thinks he loses something – time – when he does not do things quickly. Yet he does not know what to do with the time he gains, except kill it. Erich Fromm
When you automate an industry you modernize it; when you automate a life you primitivize it. Eric Hoffer
I noticed that the large windows between the paintings [in the Musee d’Art Moderne] interested me more than the art exhibited. From then on, painting as I had known it was finished for me. Ellsworth Kelly
In translation studies we talk about domestication – translation styles that make something familiar – or estrangement – translation styles that make something radically different. I use a lot of both in my translation, and modernism does both. For instance, if you look at the way James Joyce presents Ulysses, is that domesticating a classic? … Read more
Universal design systems can no longer be dismissed as the irrelevant musings of a small, localized design community. A second modernism has emerged, reinvigorating the utopian search for universal forms that marked the birth of design as a discourse and a discipline nearly a century earlier. Ellen Lupton
A ‘modern’ man has nothing to add to modernism, if only because he has nothing to oppose it with. The well-adapted drop off the dead limb of time like lice. Elias Canetti
Modern Art is being used to index me. Surely it was a source but photographers have influenced Modern Art quite as deeply as they have been influenced, maybe more. Anyway painters don’t have a copyright on M. A. We were all born in the same upheaval. Edward Weston
It takes a kind of shabby arrogance to survive in our time, and a fairly romantic nature to want to. Edgar Friedenberg
My work as a painter has always been tied to Modernism. I read everything I could find related to art, from Paul Cézanne through the 1950s. Ed Askew