Ben Nicholson Quotes

• The kind of painting which I find exciting is not necessarily representational or non-representational, but it is musical and architectural... Whether this visual relationship is slightly more or slightly less abstract is, for me, beside the point.

  Ben Nicholson

  Musical, Painting, Kind

  Peter Khoroche, Ben Nicholson (2002). “Ben Nicholson: drawings and painted reliefs”, Lund Humphries Publishers

  12 Copy quote

• I'm interested in locating the holy grail of the minimum means to express the most complex ideas.

  Ben Nicholson

  Mean, Ideas, Holy Grail

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• Painting' and 'religious experience' are the same thing. It is a question of the perpetual motion of a right idea.

  Ben Nicholson

  Religious, Ideas, Painting

  Ben Nicholson (2002). “Ben Nicholson”

  9 Copy quote

• Realism' has been abandoned in the search for reality: the 'principal objective' of abstract art is precisely this reality.

  Ben Nicholson

  Art, Reality, Abandoned

  Peter Khoroche, Ben Nicholson (2002). “Ben Nicholson: drawings and painted reliefs”, Lund Humphries Publishers

  7 Copy quote

• I'm just interested in meditating on certain ideas, and I like to draw: that's my way of thinking.

  Ben Nicholson

  Thinking, Ideas, Drawing

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• The beast for me is greed. Whether you read Dante, Swift, or any of these guys, it always boils down to the same thing: the corruption of the soul.

  Ben Nicholson

  Greed, Guy, Soul

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• I see man more as an instrument or an agent more than anything else.

  Ben Nicholson

  Men, Agents, Instruments

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• I deeply believe in pluralism. I believe in the close proximity of multiple systems or agnostic systems.

  Ben Nicholson

  Believe, Pluralism, Agnostic

  26 Copy quote

• Satire is fascinating stuff. It's deadly serious, and when politics begin to break down, there is a drift towards satire, because it's the only thing that makes any sense.

  Ben Nicholson

  Stuff, Serious, Breaking Down

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• We are pushing hard to find quality advertising clients.

  Ben Nicholson

  Quality, Pushing, Clients

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• At this present time, matter is still the best way to think of architecture, but I'm not so sure for very long. The computer is radicalizing the way we think about our world.

  Ben Nicholson

  Thinking, Our World, Long

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• The corruption of the American soul is consumerism.

  Ben Nicholson

  Soul, Corruption, Consumerism

  8 Copy quote

• When I left school I went on trip around the world - I only got as far as Australia, but like a bloody fool I cut it short because of a girl. It's probably one of my big regrets in life.

  Ben Nicholson

  Girl, Regret, School

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• I started producing work with an ecstatic addiction.

  Ben Nicholson

  Addiction, Ecstatic

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• The Irish and British, they love satire, its a large part of the culture.

  Ben Nicholson

  Culture, Satire, British

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• I have a book of buildings from 25,000 BC. These are huts built out of mammoth bones. These buildings were beautifully made, from the bones of the body into shelter.

  Ben Nicholson

  Book, Body, Shelter

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• Any ideal system is its own worst enemy, and as soon as you start to implement these visions of grandeur, they just fall apart and turn into a complete tyranny.

  Ben Nicholson

  Fall, Worst Enemy, Tyrants

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• If you're into architecture and you're from the West, everything is hors d'oeuvres for working to rebuild the Temple. Ultimately you're led there. You can't escape it.

  Ben Nicholson

  West, Temples, Architecture

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• Student journeys which were important to me were Sicily, Greece, and Egypt, where I really saw these buildings, and that is where you're able to grasp what things mean.

  Ben Nicholson

  Mean, Journey, Egypt

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• Politics are beautiful. They enable a community to live collectively with one another. It's not about stabbing each other in the back it's about enabling people to reach their dreams and pursue happiness.

  Ben Nicholson

  Beautiful, Dream, People

  84 Copy quote

• You can just drift unhappily towards this vision of heaven on earth, and ultimately that is what architecture is a vision of: Heaven on earth, at it's best.

  Ben Nicholson

  Heaven, Vision, Earth

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• What I feel bad about is not having published very much in the last few years.

  Ben Nicholson

  Years, Lasts, Feels

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• Very rarely are we directing or cutting someone elses boards. We concept, direct, shoot, animate and edit almost everything that comes through here.

  Ben Nicholson

  Cutting, Boards, Direct

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• The latest page I've been working is about the organization of the pantheon of the gods. Who's indebted to whom, how they are related, who screwed whose uncle or grandmother, all of that.

  Ben Nicholson

  Uncles, Grandmother, Organization

  7 Copy quote

• I haven't done any building designs since the Loaf House.

  Ben Nicholson

  House, Design, Done

  4 Copy quote

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