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I'm especially interested in the music of John Cage.. .I would like to do some experimenting with the relationship between his freeform sound and free-form art.

— Jasper Johns

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Music

More quotes by Jasper Johns

To be an artist you have to give up everything, including the desire to be a good artist.

Cubism is an anatomical chart of a way of seeing external objects. But I want to confuse the meaning of the act of looking.

I don't want my work to be an exposure of my feelings.

People say that my works are "neutral". But if you paint something, it is "something", and it cannot be neutral. Being neutral is a mere expression of a form of intention.

I made the flags and targets to open men's eyes.. ..[they] were both things - which are seen and not looked at - examined.

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The emphasis of study upon a particular aspect of music is in itself ideological because it contains implications about the music's value.

Lucy Green

Music is well said to be the speech of angels.

Thomas Carlyle Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827)

Music has no subject beyond the combinations of notes we hear, for music speaks not only by means of sounds, it speaks nothing but sound.

Eduard Hanslick

Above the pitch, out of tune, and off the hinges.

François Rabelais Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Jasper Johns (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.