The start of a new year calls for some reflection on the last. Last week as we awoke from our holiday and New Year’s haze, we took the time to read through all four issues of Whitewall from 2012. We strive to give artists, designers, architects, collectors, and creative minds a voice in our pages. Their words not only give us insight into their craft and creative process; they often offer revelations on the art and design worlds at large, relationships, and human nature. Here are the top 10 quotes – spoken by Maurizio Cattelan, Walton Ford, Sylvie Fleury, Vanessa Beecroft, Takashi Murakami, Cai Guo-Qiang, Yu Hong, Ma Yansong, and Yayoi Kusama – from a full year in Whitewall magazine. May you find inspiration and truth in them for 2013.
1. “Producing a good work is a matter of magic, so when it comes I am thankful, and I make it hoping that there will be another magic moment for me to come.” – Maurizio Cattelan (winter 2012 Luxury Issue)
2. “The last show I had was the bloodiest show I’ve ever had… But I believe artists who actually can access that stuff can have a healthier time of it, actually. You get a lot of stuff out.” – Walton Ford (winter 2012 Luxury Issue)
3. “We can glamorize the art world, but it’s just like any other small world with rules and as many good things and bad things.” – Sylvie Fleury (winter 2012 Luxury Issue)
4. “I want to present women in a monumental way in the performances, in a big group, in front of the audience, or in marble. Yet I want them to be vulnerable, broken and upside-down, as if not established yet. That’s probably what I feel as a person, and in a way it reflects directly into my work without even me rationalizing it.” – Vanessa Beecroft (spring 2012 Art Issue)
5. “In this environment, where human beings are treated as cattle, against the odds those individuals are trying to express their own identity. It is a kind of yelling from the jaws of hell that I am trying to portray in my artistic forms.” – Takashi Murakami (spring 2012 Art Issue)
6. “Family is like a safe anchor or your own stretch of forest. I’m like a ship or a bird; wherever I fly off to or sail off to; I’ll always want to come back to these woods or this harbor.” – Cai Guo-Qiang (summer 2012 China Issue)
7. “It’s a very difficult thing, becoming an artist. First of all, you have to have a dream. Actually, everyone has a dream, but it’s only very few people who are able to strive truly effectively to achieve their dream.” – Yu Hong (summer 2012 China Issue)
8. “The old cities were built for God, modern cities are built for capital, and I believe the future cities should be built for people…I think architects should be willing to express and share their ambitious dreams with the society. They are like the storytellers of the future.” – Ma Yansong (summer 2012 China Issue)
9. “I have to leave as many good works as I can while I am still alive. That’s my mission.” – Yayoi Kusama (fall 2012 Fashion Issue)
10. “Creativity must be conveyed through the power of the essential human spirit, but few works of art actually derive from sheer force of spirit. Art inspired by intellect and taste is certainly artwork, but we cannot casually attribute spiritual power to such art.” – Yayoi Kusama (fall 2012 Fashion Issue)
