Art is “a human construct, a standard set. In the studio, alone, brush in hand, I’m never bored, surrounded by memories of the great Masters, as if they were there. Rembrandt is in all of them. There’s no progress in art, nothing as marvelous as Giotto, he’s painting empathy, one’s moved by everything, it’s re-imagined internally. It all happens now. It’s a marathon, they’re all still running. The older I get, the more acutely I am aware of the Old Masters — until the thing takes off and then I’m not aware what I’m doing any longer. “Everything I finish has been a surprise, not what I intended or hoped for. It’s when you’ve run out of conscious things, something takes it over, and one has done something that can stand up for itself.”
— Frank Auerbach