The capacity to value and to perceive are inseparable from the cultured person. These are indispensable qualities for the artist too, almost as necessary as are his eyes ― to look and look, and think, and listen, and be aware.

Ben Shahn

The Education of an Artist

Topic: Creativity, Culture, & the Arts

“I think we could safely say that perceptiveness is the outstanding quality of the cultured man or woman. Perceptiveness is an awareness of things and people, of their qualities. It is recognition of values, perhaps arising from long familiarity with things of value, with art and music and other creative things, or perhaps proceeding from an inborn sensitiveness of character. But the capacity to value and to perceive are inseparable from the cultured person. These are indispensable qualities for the artist too, almost as necessary as are his eyes―to look and look, and think, and listen, and be aware.“

Ben Shahn

Ben Shahn (September 12, 1898 – March 14, 1969) [Shahn, Ben. The Shape of Content. Harvard University Press, 1985].

(1898-1969) Humanism, Arts and Sciences
The Shape of Content

Shahn, Ben. The Shape of Content. Harvard University Press, 1985, pp. 114-115 [Ben Shahn, The Shape of Content, The Education of an Artist].

Ben Shahn