Bram van Velde Quotes

The less you think, the better it is.

Mondrian.. .The constructivists?.. .They had certainties. They wanted a stable basis to work on, but I’m afraid that that was enormous arrogance on their part. Nothing is stable and no certainties are possible.

The more you know, the less you are.

Yes, I abandoned everything. Painting required it. It was all or nothing.

Painting is getting in touch with the truth. It's a matter of summoning up the vision I need.

Life and mind are continuously in conflict with each other. I want happiness, security. I won’t reach that by considerations of my mind; on the contrary they will lead to a certain despair of the inner person. Not what he thinks engages the artist, but what he feels.

There’s always doubt. There’s nothing you can get hold of.

Oh Baudelaire.. .He used to be enormously important to me. It's thanks to him that I was able to get through the war [in Paris, during 1940 – 1945 Van Velde had a long and painful break, with only a few paintings he finished]. A true loyal mind without hypocrisy. The most universal spirit. The greatest Frenchman. I have always been much less interested in painters [than Baudelaire - a great surprise to hear for Charles Juliet the interviewer].

About Van Gogh.. a man who is on fire, a torch. His sincerity is absolute. His best painting is the grain field where he kills himself. There we find ourselves at the border of the art of painting. We cannot go further.

What the eye can see won't get us very far. And what it can see is so limited, so restricted. But a gouache or an oil painting can be seen at a glance, can take in a whole world at a single glance.

However terrible it is, the thing never involves any sadness

I am well aware that a painting must inevitably be a bizarre, incomprehensible thing.

I feel myself tied to life. To the immensity and complexity of life. Each painting is an impulse towards life.

Van Gogh.. Fascinating. The fragility of that strong spirit.

To be nothing. Just nothing. It’s a frightening experience. You have to let go of everything.