Quotation by

Frank Auerbach

To put down an ideogram of a table so that people will recognize it as a table is not the work of a painter, but to sense it for a moment as a magic carpet with a leg hanging down at each corner is the beginning of a painter's imagination.

Frank Auerbach

Imagination

Understanding this quote AI Analysis

The quote means that simply drawing a basic symbol of a table is a straightforward task anyone can do, but truly imagining the table as something magical or alive requires creative thinking. It highlights that a painter’s skill lies in seeing ordinary objects in extraordinary ways, beyond their simple appearance.

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Television contracts the imagination and radio expands it.

Imagination is not something apart and hermetic, not a way of leaving reality behind it is a way of engaging reality.

Personality is more important than beauty, but imagination is more important than both of them.

With the brush we merely tint, while the imagination alone produces colour.

Anyone who lives within his means suffers from a lack of imagination.

One lifetime is never enough to accomplish one's horticultural goals. If a garden is a site for the imagination, how can we be very far from the beginning?