I don't like that word 'finish'. When something is finished… - Arshile Gorky

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I don't like that word 'finish'. When something is finished, that means it's dead, doesn't it? I believe in everlastingness. I never finish a painting – I just stop working on it for a while. I like painting because it's something I never come to the end of. Sometimes I paint a picture, then I paint it all out. Sometimes I'm working on fifteen or twenty pictures at the same time. I do that because I want to – because I like to change my mind so often. The thing to do is always to keep starting to paint, never finishing painting. [quote of 1948]

Arshile Gorky

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About Arshile Gorky

Arshile Gorky (15 April 1904 – 21 July 1948), born Vostanik Manoog Adoyan, was an American abstract expressionist painter of Armenian descent, living and working in New York, where he got later strongly involved with American Surrealism. He was a very close friend of Willem de Kooning who respected him as a teacher in painting.

Also Known As

Native Name: Արշիլ Գորկի

Alternative Names: Ostanik-Manuk Adoian • Arshil Gorʹkiĭ • Arshile Gorky Adoian • Arshil Gorky • Osdanig-Manug Atoyan • Arshil Gorki Adoyan • Wostanig Adoyan • Vosdanig Manoog Adoian • Ostanik-Manuk Adoyan • Arshil Gorki • Ostanik-Manuk Adoyean • Osdanig-Manug Atoian • Vostanik-Manuk Adoian • Arschille Gorky • Vosdanik Adoian • Arshele Gorky • Vosdanig Adoian • Archele Gorky • Archel Gorky • Archele Gorki • Arshile Gorkij • Adoian Gorky • a. gorky

All quotes from Arshile Gorky Similar Quotes by other Originators

Originators like Arshile Gorky:

Paul Cézanne Willem de Kooning Karel Appel Philip Guston Wassily Kandinsky

Additional quotes by Arshile Gorky

When I feel tired and discouraged and I lie down on the sofa, then I think of the simplest thing I can – a piece of string – and I go in it and paint it. That's the way to keep painting – to create something inside that makes you want to recreate it.

You know how fussy and particular I am in painting. I am ever removing the paint and repainting the spot until I am completely exhausted.

I was with Cézanne for a long time, and now naturally I am with Picasso

I don't like that word 'finish'. When something is finished, that means it's dead, doesn't it? I believe in everlastingness. I never finish a paintin… - Arshile Gorky

About Arshile Gorky

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