Scott Kahn Quotes

The conceptual and politically-driven art so popular and considered to be the forefront of contemporary art today is limited by its topicality and will lose its 'punch' when topical concerns move on to other interests.

Color, like everything else concerning visual expression, usually boils down to a gift, an innate sensibility and sensitivity. Ultimately, artists develop their own palette and color sense.

Self-deceit is a most damaging trait. The remedy, for an artist, is to paint a self-portrait!

I don't approve of what Wall Street and the wealthy have done to this country, but they are the very ones buying my paintings.

The voice will always be heard, even if the song is very different.

Selling is not a static activity.

Let us not forget that group of self-taught, outsider artists who never stepped foot in any classroom and cared less about even exhibiting, and yet ended up with an audience of avid admirers.

I paint with a language I can call my own... it takes a ruthless honesty with oneself. If one admires or is influenced by anyone else, one is not being true to oneself.

No amount of virtuosic skill and choice of subject matter can be a substitute for depth and poetry.

The art which speaks to a universal audience concerns itself with the 'big' questions of life and death, and delivers its message with unrelenting and powerful emotion.

Becoming an artist cannot be taught. A degree and diligence is not a guarantee that one can become an 'artist.

Art springs from life but it doesn't mean we have to be tyrannized by it.

Preconceived notions and rules are antithetical to the creative process.

What the artist should be asking is, "Am I being honest? Am I being myself? Am I searching for the truth? Am I reporting my experience of life and the world as I see and experience it?

I don't think it's wise to manufacture a painting, just for the sake of working... if the impulse isn't truly there, the painting will lack power.

The art business is a rarified business and appeals to an audience capable of spending money on a luxury. Too often the atmosphere in a gallery borders on snobbishness.