Henri Matisse Quotes - Page 4

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• If people knew what Matisse, supposedly the painter of happiness, had gone through, the anguish and tragedy he had to overcome to manage to capture that light which has never left him, if people knew all that, they would also realize that this happiness, this light, this dispassionate wisdom which seems to be mine, are sometimes well-deserved, given the severity of my trials.

  Henri Matisse

  Happiness, Light, People

  Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1995). “Matisse on Art”, p.11, Univ of California Press

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• The essential thing is to spring forth, to express the bolt of lightning one senses upon contact with a thing. The function of the artist is not to translate an observation but to express the shock of the object on his nature; the shock, with the original reaction.

  Henri Matisse

  Spring, Artist, Lightning

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• Much of the beauty that arises in art comes from the struggle an artist wages with his limited medium.

  Henri Matisse

  Art, Struggle, Wages

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• If drawing belongs to the world of spirit and color to that of the senses, you must draw first to cultivate the spirit.

  Henri Matisse

  Color, Drawing, World

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• The truly original artist invents his own signs.

  Henri Matisse

  Artist, Originals

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• The whole arrangement of my picture is expressive. The place occupied by the figures or objects, the empty spaces around them, the proportions, everything plays a part.

  Henri Matisse

  Play, Space, Empty

  Henri Matisse, Susan Lambert, Victoria and Albert Museum (1981). “Matisse lithographs”

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• The effort to see things without distortion takes something like courage and this courage is essential to the artist, who has to look at everything as though he saw it for the first time.

  Henri Matisse

  Courage, Artist, Effort

  30 Copy quote

• Purer colors... have in themselves, independently of the objects they serve to express, a significant action on the feelings of those who look at them.

  Henri Matisse

  Color, Feelings, Looks

  25 Copy quote

• You study, you learn, but you guard the original naivete. It has to be within you, as desire for drink is within the drunkard or love is within the lover.

  Henri Matisse

  Art, Love Is, Alaska

  "Time" magazine, June 26, 1950.

  25 Copy quote

• What I am after, above all, is expression.

  Henri Matisse

  Expression

  Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1995). “Matisse on Art”, p.37, Univ of California Press

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• I want to reach that condensation of sensations that constitutes a picture.

  Henri Matisse

  Art, Want, Condensation

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• I never retouch a sketch: I take a canvas the same size, as I may change the composition somewhat. But I always strive to give the same feeling, while carrying it on further.

  Henri Matisse

  Giving, Feelings, May

  Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1995). “Matisse on Art”, p.67, Univ of California Press

  69 Copy quote

• Hatred is a parasite that devours all. One doesn't build upon hatred, but upon love.

  Henri Matisse

  Hatred, Parasites

  Henri Matisse (1977). “Henri Matisse Paper Cut-outs: National Gallery of Art Color Slide Program”

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• Color, even more than drawing, is a means of liberation.

  Henri Matisse

  Mean, Color, Drawing

  Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1995). “Matisse on Art”, p.156, Univ of California Press

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• When I started to paint I felt transported into a kind of paradise... In everyday life I was usually bored and vexed... Starting to paint I felt gloriously free.

  Henri Matisse

  Freedom, Bored, Everyday

  18 Copy quote

• Seek the strongest color effect possible... the content is of no importance.

  Henri Matisse

  Art, Color, Importance

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• An artist must possess Nature. He must identify himself with her rhythm, by efforts that will prepare the mastery which will later enable him to express himself in his own language.

  Henri Matisse

  Artist, Effort, Mastery

  21 Copy quote

• ...for whether we want to or not, we belong to our time and we share in its opinions, its feelings, even its delusions.

  Henri Matisse

  Feelings, Want, Opinion

  Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1995). “Matisse on Art”, p.43, Univ of California Press

  13 Copy quote

• ...The more a picture has to give, the greater it is.

  Henri Matisse

  Art, Giving, Greater

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• I do not literally paint that table, but the emotion it produces upon me.

  Henri Matisse

  Art, Emotional, Feelings

  Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1995). “Matisse on Art”, p.66, Univ of California Press

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• It would be a mistake to ascribe this creative power to an inborn talent. In art, the genius creator is not just a gifted being, but a person who has succeeded in arranging for their appointed end, a complex of activities, of which the work is the outcome. The artist begins with a vision — a creative operation requiring an effort. Creativity takes courage.

  Henri Matisse

  Art, Mistake, Creativity

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• My choice of colors does not rest on any scientific theory; it is based on observation, on feeling, on the experience of my sensibility. Inspired by certain pages of Delacroix, an artist like Signac is preoccupied with complementary colors, and the theoretical knowledge of them will lead him to use a certain tone in a certain place. But I simply try to put down colors which render my sensation.

  Henri Matisse

  Artist, Color, Choices

  "Artists on Art - from the 14th - 20th centuries". Book edited by Robert Goldwater and Marco Treves; Pantheon Books, London, p. 412, 'Notes d'un Peintre' (Notes of a Painter), 1972.

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• Drawing is of the Spirit and color of the Senses.

  Henri Matisse

  Color, Drawing, Spirit

  "Minnesota celebrates Matisse".

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• You want to paint? First of all you must cut off your tongue because your decision takes away from you the right to express yourself with anything but your brush.

  Henri Matisse

  Cutting, Decision, Want

  Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1973). “Matisse on art”

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• With color one obtains an energy that seems to stem from witchcraft.

  Henri Matisse

  Art, Color, Energy

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