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In nature, light creates the color; in the picture, color creates light. Every color shade emanates a very characteristic light — no substitute is possible.

— Hans Hofmann

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Variants

In nature, light creates the color. In the picture, color creates the light.

More quotes by Hans Hofmann

Every art expression is rooted fundamentally in the personality and temperament of the artist.

To sense the invisible and to be able to create it — that is art.

Art is something absolute, something positive, which gives power just as food gives power.
While creative science is a mental food, art is the satisfaction of the soul.

Search for the Real and Other Essays (1948)

It makes no difference whether a work is naturalistic or abstract; every visual expression follows the same fundamental laws.

Search for the Real and Other Essays (1948)

Since light is best expressed through differences in color quality, color should not be handled as a tonal gradation, to produce the effect of light.

Search for the Real and Other Essays (1948)

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Attribution

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