Henri Matisse Quotes - Page 8

Quotes about:

• In the beginning you must subject yourself to the influence of nature. You must be able to walk firmly on the ground before you start walking on a tightrope.

  Henri Matisse

  Able, Influence, Walks

  9 Copy quote

• A certain color tones you up. It's the concentration of timbres.

  Henri Matisse

  Color, Tone, Timbre

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

  12 Copy quote

• From Bonheur de Vivre - I was thirty-five then - to this cut-out - I am eighty-two - I have not changed; not in the way my friends mean who want to compliment me, no matter what, on my good health, but because all this time I have looked for the same things, which I have perhaps realized by different means.

  Henri Matisse

  Mean, Cutting, Two

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

  7 Copy quote

• Composition, the aim of which is expression, alters itself according to the surface to be covered. If I take a sheet of paper of given dimensions, I will jot down a drawing which will have a necessary relation to its format.

  Henri Matisse

  Drawing, Expression, Dimensions

  "Artists on Art - from the 14th - 20th centuries". Book edited by Robert Goldwater and Marco Treves; Pantheon Books, London, p. 410, 'Notes d'un Peintre' (Notes of a Painter), 1972.

  20 Copy quote

• In art, truth and reality begin when one no longer understands what one is doing or what one knows, and when there remains an energy that is all the stronger for being constrained, controlled and compressed.

  Henri Matisse

  Art, Passion, Reality

  Henri Matisse (1992). “Jazz”, George Braziller

  8 Copy quote

• A new painting is a unique event, a birth, which enriches the universe as it is grasped by the human mind, by bringing a new form into it.

  Henri Matisse

  Unique, Mind, Events

  4 Copy quote

• The Barnes Foundation is the only sane place to see art in America.

  Henri Matisse

  Art, America, Foundation

  4 Copy quote

• If my story were ever to be written truthfully from start to finish, it would amaze everyone.

  Henri Matisse

  Stories, Written, Ifs

  4 Copy quote

• It is through the human figure that I best succeed in expressing the nearly religious feeling that I have towards life.

  Henri Matisse

  Religious, Feelings, Humanity

  7 Copy quote

• What matters most to me? To work with my model until I have it enough in me to be able to improvise, to let my hand run free.

  Henri Matisse

  Running, What Matters, Hands

  7 Copy quote

• From the first shock of the contemplation of a face depends the principal sensation which guides me throughout the entire execution of a portrait.

  Henri Matisse

  Portraits, Faces, Firsts

  16 Copy quote

• Instinct must be thwarted just as one prunes the branches of a tree so that it will grow better.

  Henri Matisse

  Tree, Intuition, Natural Instinct

  10 Copy quote

• The sign for which I forge an image has no value if it doesn't harmonize with other signs, which I must determine in the course of my invention and which are completely peculiar to it.

  Henri Matisse

  Peculiar, Harmony, Invention

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

  7 Copy quote

• Time extracts various values from a painter's work. When these values are exhausted the pictures are forgotten, and the more a picture has to give, the greater it is.

  Henri Matisse

  Art, Giving, Aristocracy

  8 Copy quote

• Hatred, rancor, and the spirit of vengeance are useless baggage to the artist. His road is difficult enough for him to cleanse his soul of everything which could make it more so.

  Henri Matisse

  Artist, Hatred, Soul

  56 Copy quote

• Fit the parts together, one into the other, and build your figure like a carpenter builds a house. Everything must be constructed, composed of parts that make a whole.

  Henri Matisse

  House, Together, Fit

  7 Copy quote

• Truly, I'm not joking when I thank my lucky stars for the awful operation I had, since it has made me young again and philosophical which means that I don't want to fritter away the new lease on life I've been given.

  Henri Matisse

  Stars, Philosophical, Mean

  4 Copy quote

• Expression for me does not reside in passions glowing in a human face or manifested by violent movement. The entire arrangement of my picture is expressive; the place occupied by my figures, the empty space around them, the proportions, everything has its share.

  Henri Matisse

  Passion, Glowing, Expression

  "Notes d'un Peintre". "La Grande Revue", as translated by Jack Flam in "Matisse on Art" (1995), December 25, 1908.

  6 Copy quote

• Expression is not a matter of passion mirrored on the human face or revealed by a violent gesture. When I paint a picture, its every detail is expressive.

  Henri Matisse

  Passion, Expression, Faces

  7 Copy quote

• Arrival = Prison, and the artist must never be a prisoner.

  Henri Matisse

  Art, Prison, Arrivals

  6 Copy quote

• The use of expressive colors is felt to be one of the basic elements of the modern mentality, an historical necessity, beyond choice.

  Henri Matisse

  Color, Rainbow, Choices

  Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1995). “Matisse on Art”, p.177, Univ of California Press

  7 Copy quote

• There are wonderful things in Jazz, the improvisation, the liveliness, the being at one with the audience.

  Henri Matisse

  Music, Jazz, Wonderful

  7 Copy quote

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