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Patrick Swift Quotes

Life is more important than art - quantity is only important in that the amount of activity is greater not the number of works.

Life is more important than art - quantity is only important in that the amount of activity is greater not the number of works.

Patrick Swift
Art, Numbers, Important
Patrick Swift (1993). “PS -- of Course: Patrick Swift, 1927-1983”

I believe when you bring, say, a plant into a room, everything in that room changes in relation to it. This tension - tension is the only word for it - can be painted.

Patrick Swift
Believe, Rooms, Plant
Patrick Swift (1993). “PS -- of Course: Patrick Swift, 1927-1983”

The development that produces great art is a moral and not an aesthetic development.

Patrick Swift
Art, Development, Moral
"Italian Report" by Patrick Swift, for the Committee of Cultural Relations, Dept of External Affairs, December 1955.

All art is probably erotic in its ultimate character, but painting more than anything else is a purely nervous erotic activity.

Patrick Swift
Art, Character, Erotic
"Some Notes on Caravaggio". "Nimbus" Magazine, 1956.

For to be contemporary is not necessarily to be part of any movement, to be included in the official representations of national and international art. History shows that it may well be the opposite. It may be that it is the odd, the personal, the curious, the simply honest, that at this moment, when everyone looks to the extreme and flamboyant, constitutes the most interesting manifestation of the spirit of art.

Patrick Swift
Art, Opposites, Interesting
"Official Art and the Modern Painter". "X, A Quarterly Review" Magazine, Vol. I, No. 1, November 1959.

Art, if it is successful in the task of questioning reality, if it is good painting and not merely a performance of dexterity, will be an affirmation of God.

Patrick Swift
Art, Successful, Reality
Patrick Swift (1993). “PS -- of Course: Patrick Swift, 1927-1983”

The painter celebrates life where he finds it. His morality is the morality of enjoyment, of the continuous development of his own taste without shame or fear. It is a sort of heroism.

Patrick Swift
Heroism, Development, Taste
"Mob Morals and the Art of Loving Art". "X, A Quarterly Review" Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 1, January 1961.

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