Agnes Martin

“The Minimalists are idealist. They want to minimize themselves in favor of the ideal... But I just can't. You see, my paintings are not cool.”

“You can't make a perfect painting. We can see perfection in our minds. But we can't make a perfect painting.”

“Artwork is a representation of our devotion to life.”

“When I think of art I think of beauty. Beauty is the mystery of life. It is not in the eye it is in the mind. In our minds there is awareness of perfection.”

“I don’t believe in influence. I think that in order to be an artist, you have to move. When you stop moving, then you’re no longer an artist. And if you move from somebody else’s position, you simply cannot know the next step. I think that everyone is on his own line. I think that after you’ve made one step, the next step reveals itself. I believe that you were born on this line. I don’t say that the actual footsteps were marked before you get to them, and I don’t say that change isn’t possible in your course. But I do believe we unfold out of ourselves, and we do what we are born to do sooner or later, anyway.”

“I don't think the way to succeed is by doing something aggressive. Aggression is weak-minded.”

“One thing I like about Zen. It doesn't believe in achievement.”

“To progress in life you must give up the things you do not like. Give up doing the things that you do not like to do. You must find the things that you do like. The things that are acceptable to your mind.”

“When I first made a grid, I happened to be thinking of the innocence of trees, and then a grid came into my mind and I thought it represented innocence, and I still do, and so I painted it and then I was satisfied. I thought, 'This is my vision.'”

“The main thing in making art often is letting go of your expectation and your idea.”

“My paintings are certainly nonobjective. They're just horizontal lines.”

“The worst thing you can think about when you're working is yourself.”

“I think everyone is born 100 percent ego, and after that it's just adjustment.”

“Any material may be used but the theme is the same and the response is the same for all artwork... we all have the same concern, but the artist must know exactly what the experience is. He must pursue the truth relentlessly.”

“Happiness is being on the beam with life - to feel the pull of life.”

“People who look at my painting say that it makes them happy, like the feeling when you wake up in the morning. And happiness is the goal, isn't it?”

“I'm very careful not to have ideas, because they're inaccurate.”

“Art is the concrete representation of our most subtle feelings.”

“The value of art is in the observer.”

“My paintings are not about what is seen. They are about what is known forever in the mind.”