Ralph Ellison Quotes about Art

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God is love, I said, but art's the possibility of forms, and shadows are the source of identity.

God is love, I said, but art's the possibility of forms, and shadows are the source of identity.

Ralph Ellison

Art, Shadow, Identity

Ralph Ellison (2010). “Three Days Before the Shooting . . .”, p.987, Modern Library

The blues is an art of ambiguity, an assertion of the irrepressibly human over all circumstance whether created by others or by one's own human failings. They are the only consistent art in the United States which constantly remind us of our limitations while encouraging us to see how far we can actually go. When understood in their more profound implication, they are a corrective, an attempt to draw a line upon man's own limitless assertion.

Ralph Ellison

Music, Art, Men

Ralph Ellison (2011). “Shadow and Act”, p.245, Vintage

If social protest is antithetical to art, what then shall we make of Goya, Dickens, and Twain?

Ralph Ellison

Art, Goya, Social

Ralph Ellison, Maryemma Graham, Amritjit Singh (1995). “Conversations with Ralph Ellison”, p.8, Univ. Press of Mississippi

The blues is an art of ambiguity, an assertion of the irrepressibly human over all circumstances, whether created by others or by one's own human failing.

Ralph Ellison

Music, Art, Failing

Ralph Ellison (2003). “The Collected Essays of Ralph Ellison”, Random House LLC

Life is as the sea, art a ship in which man conquers life's crushing formlessness, reducing it to a course, a series of swells, tides and wind currents inscribed on a chart.

Ralph Ellison

Crush, Art, Men

Ralph Ellison (2011). “The Collected Essays of Ralph Ellison: Revised and Updated”, p.133, Modern Library

We don't all dig Shakespeare uniformly, or even 'Little Red Riding Hood.' The understanding of art depends finally upon one's willingness to extend one's humanity and one's knowledge of human life.

Ralph Ellison

Art, Understanding, Humanity

Ralph Ellison, Maryemma Graham, Amritjit Singh (1995). “Conversations with Ralph Ellison”, p.13, Univ. Press of Mississippi