Mark Tobey quotes

An artist must find his expression closely linked to his individual experience or else follow in the old grooves resulting in lifeless forms. (Mark Tobey)

White lines in movement symbolize a unifying idea which flows through the compartmented units of life bringing the consciousness of a larger relativity.

Mark Tobey

At a time when experimentation expresses itself in all forms of life, search becomes the only valid expression of the spirit.

Mark Tobey

We look at the mountain to see the painting, then we look at the painting to see the mountain.

Mark Tobey

Reality must be expressed by a physical symbol.

Mark Tobey

Now it seems to me that we are in a universalising period... If we are to have world peace, we should have an understanding of all the idioms of beauty because the members of humanity who have created these idioms of beauty are going to be a part of us. And I would say that we are in a period when we are discovering and becoming acquainted with these idioms for the first time.

Mark Tobey

We have tried to fit man into abstraction, but he does not fit.

Mark Tobey

Every artist's problem today is: What will we do with the human?

Mark Tobey

There has been 32 isms since the advent of Cubism, yet after all there are essentially the same two old strings, the Romantic and the Classical. We've just be confused by the storm. Science and psychology have played a great part to say nothing of sex.

Mark Tobey

We all feel a separateness; we wish that a drop of water would soften our ego; the world needs a common conscience: agreement.... we must concentrate outside ourselves.

Mark Tobey

I am accused often of too much experimentation.... but what else should I do when all other factors of man are in the same condition. I thrust forward into space as science and the rest do. (Mark Tobey)

The root of all religions, from the Baha'i point of view, is based on the theory that man will gradually come to understand the unity of the world and the oneness of mankind. It teaches that all the prophets are one – that science and religion are the two great powers which must be balanced if man is to become mature. I feel my work has been influenced by these beliefs. I've tried to decentralize and interpenetrate so that all parts of a painting are of related value.

Mark Tobey

I believe that painting should come through the avenues of meditation rather than the canals of action.

Mark Tobey

On pavements and the bark of trees I have found whole worlds.

Mark Tobey

According to one critic, my works looked like scraped billboards. I went to look at the billboards and decided that more billboards should be scraped.

Mark Tobey

I have sought a unified world in my work and use a movable vortex to achieve it.

Mark Tobey

England collapses, turns Chinese with English and American thoughts. Thousands of Chinese characters are turning and twisting; every door is a shop. The rickshaws jostle the vendors, their backs hung with incredible loads. The narrow streets are alive in a way that Broadway isn't alive. Here all is human, even the beasts of burden. The human energy spills itself in multiple forms, writhes, sweats and strains every muscle towards the day's bowl of rice. The din is terrific.

Mark Tobey

It is Fall. The leaves are being raked under the great elms darkening in the evening light. Slowly they become weighted with darkness. Across the river they are burning the grass on the Minnesota bluffs. Myriads of colored streamers reflect in the river blow..

Mark Tobey

I have many ideas for lights. I will paint only lights at night. [on the twinkling city-lights].

Mark Tobey

I have just had my first lesson in Chinese brush from my friend and artist Teng Kwei. The tree is no more solid in the earth, breaking into lesser solids in the earth, breaking into lesser solids bathed in chiaroscuro. There is pressure and release. Each movement, like tracks in the snow, is recorded and often loved for itself. The Great Dragon is breathing sky, thunder and shadow; wisdom and spirit vitalized. All is in motion now... One step backward into the past and the tree in front of my studio in Seattle is all rhythm, lifting, springing upward.

Mark Tobey

My first lesson in relativity:.. we had a still life set-up to paint. Suddenly I saw that the pitcher was so big [his hands outside the shape of a pitcher, then close in] and the glass was so big. From that time on everything was all right. [Tobey is remembering his Saturday morning painting class]. (Mark Tobey)

The Cubists used the figure, but they broke it up... But there was escape, too, even in those days, for there was Whistler living in the grey mists with a faded orange moon. The nocturne transformed itself into dreamy rooms with Chopin's music creating a mood that softened the hard core of self.

Mark Tobey

Two men dressed in white jeans with white caps on their heads.... climbing over a large sign of white letters. Of course, the words spell something, but that is unimportant. What is important is their white, and the white of the letters.

Mark Tobey