Quotes by Brad Holland

• In Modernism, reality used to validate media. In Postmodernism, the media validate reality. If you don't believe this, just think how many times you've described some real event as being 'just like a movie.'
• The truth is, we haven't really figured out yet how artists are going to thrive in modern mass societies. We're all experiments.
• The only people left in America who seem not to be artists are illustrators.
• Surrealism: An archaic term. Formerly an art movement. No longer distinguishable from everyday life.
• Style is the most valuable asset of the modern artist. That's probably why so many styles are reported lost or stolen each year.
• Postmodernists believe that truth is myth, and myth, truth. This equation has its roots in pop psychology. The same people also believe that emotions are a form of reality. There used to be another name for this state of mind. It used to be called psychosis.
• Political art expresses the cliches you agree with, unlike propaganda, which expresses the cliches you don't.
• Many of the contradictions in Postmodern art come from the fact that we're trying to be artists in a democratic society. This is because in a democracy, the ideal is compromise. In art, it isn't.
• In America, the only truly popular art form is the movies. Most people consider painting a hobby and literature, schoolwork.
• If they were starting their careers today, Rockwell and Picasso would probably both be painting on black velvet.
• I've never understood why artists, who so often condescend to the cliches of their own culture, are so eager to embrace the cliches of cultures they know nothing about.
• Futurism: This was a movement of intellectuals who wanted to replace tradition with the modern world of machinery, speed, violence, and public relations. It proves that we should be careful what intellectuals wish for, because we might get it.
• Fifty years ago, it was the dream of every bohemian artist to be seen getting out of a limousine wearing blue jeans and sneakers. Today, it's the dream of probably half the people in the country.
• Cubism is still the most important art movement for the same reason that John D. is still the most important Rockefeller.
• Art imitates life. Life imitates high school.
• Many people have observed that truth is stranger than fiction. This has led some intellectuals to conclude that it's stranger than non-fiction as well.