zlacker

It could be a niche quote in an art history book, but it could hardly be qualified as a saying.

I asked around since my first comment and not a single person knew about it.

>>wiethe+(OP)
It's so memorable, probably why it stick in my memory: how can you have a canvas without a wall? The wall is the canvas. Yet the wall simultaneously constrains the canvas, thus allowing it to become the canvas, to become worthy of a canvas. This French idiom says so much without saying practically anything.

>>public+F2
Coming back at this with a fresh mind, whoever said it could also have meant that every painting should be displayed: it requires a wall to hang on.

As you say, it's not immediately clear what is meant.

>>dxdm+6i1
Even more evidence of how versatile that French phrase is. There's just so many acceptable meanings to it, and every one of them points to the same conclusion: bounds enable art.