7.16.2010

Quotes About Art (from the menus of Natt Spil)

So, as I have mentioned before, I recently moved out of Madison, Wisconsin back to San Francisco (for the time being). One of my last nights in Madison I went to my favorite restaurant, Natt Spil (211 King Street Madison, WI 53703 (608) 258-8787, this phone number is for the restaurant next door because Natt Spil is so cool and hip they do not have a telephone... Makes things difficult but it is always worth it!). The menus at this restaurant never change in terms of the food on them but the covers are always decorated with funny quotes. It happened by lovely chance that my last night at my favorite place would coincide with the week that their menus were decorated with truly fantastic quotes about art by artists and famous cultural luminaries. I hope you enjoy them now as much as I did then. Looking at this menu has brought a tear to my eye.


In art the best is good enough.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

All that I desire to point out is the general principle that life imitates art far more than art imitates life.
- Oscar Wilde

An artist cannot fail: it is a success to be one.
- Charles Horton Cooley

Art doesn't transform. It just plain forms.
- Roy Lichtenstein

Art is either plagiarism or revolution.
- Paul Gauguin

Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
- Pablo Picasso

I choose a block of marble and then chop off whatever I don't need.
- Auguste Rodin

Modern art is what happens when painters stop looking at girls and persuade themselves that they have a better idea.
- John Ciardi

2 comments:

  1. Good Morning Lydia,

    You have totally made my day. I've been collecting new sets of quotes for my menus almost every week for the past 6 years, and this is the first time I've ever seen them passed on in print. I really liked this set as well.

    Hope you'll make it back to visit Nattspil soon!

    Kind regards,

    Prentice Berge
    Owner and menu maker
    Nattspil

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  2. I am so glad! I love your restaurant to death, I definitely ate there roughly twice a week for most of the last year, dragging my friends there for every major event. The mussels, a three cup chicken and a bottle of Ponga Sauv Blanc was my meal of choice. I hope to make it back soon. The menus are such a great idea, and I remember, especially during graduation weekend, they made me laugh out loud. Thanks for the good times and great food!

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