Quotes

In my work, I strive not only to show the formal beauty of surrounding objects, but to express my feeling for them, my admiration. I attempt to uncover hidden spirituality in nature and to present subject matter metaphorically.
                                                                       ––Felix Lembersky, Autobiography, 1960

I want to show the internal state of oppression and the pensiveness that announces awareness. Man has broken free from the dark, and this movement has the potential to lead to change. ­­­­
            ––Felix Lembersky, thesis defense during The Siege of Leningrad, December 1941

Realism is an infinite and eternal form of art. The entire history of art is Realism. Each generation creates their own realism and defines it by their criteria.
                                                                                    ––Felix Lembersky, ca. 1956–63

Until recently, we could not speak honestly, because we were told that art cannot have contradictions, that we must create lacquered heroes. . . . To create such heroes is to steal from people. This is not the essence of truth.                                 

                                                                                     ––Felix Lembersky, 1956 speech 

The true artist must resolve a dilemma––either to blindly follow the path of mimesis in depicting nature, or to refuse to record insignificant facts and small, inconsequential details in order to create an art that reveals nature’s inner workings, discovering a new world.
                                                                                      ––Felix Lembersky, 1956 speech