Henri Matisse Quotes - Page 7

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• The wall around the window does not create two worlds.

  Henri Matisse

  Wall, Two, Doe

  Margrit Hahnloser-Ingold, Henri Matisse (1987). “Matisse, the graphic work”, Rizzoli International Publications

  6 Copy quote

• I was driven on by.. A force which I see today as something alien to my normal life... so I have been no more than a medium as it were.

  Henri Matisse

  Today, Normal, Aliens

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• A work of art must carry in itself its complete significance and impose it upon the beholder even before he can identify the subject-matter.

  Henri Matisse

  Art, Matter, Beholder

  "Artists on Art - from the 14th - 20th centuries". Book edited by Robert Goldwater and Marco Treves; Pantheon Books, London, p. 413, 'Notes d'un Peintre' (Notes of a Painter), 1972.

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• The splitting up of color [as Impressionists did] brought the splitting up of form and contour . . . Everything is reduced to a mere sensation of the retina, but one which destroys all tranquility of surface and contour. Objects are differentiated only by the luminosity that is given them.

  Henri Matisse

  Color, Splitting Up, Tranquility

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• 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”

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• The chief function of color should be to serve expression as well as possible.

  Henri Matisse

  Expression, Color, Should

  "Matisse on Art".

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• I am unable to distinguish between the feeling I have for life and my way of expressing it.

  Henri Matisse

  Feelings, Way, My Way

  Henri Matisse, John M. Jacobus (1973). “Henri Matisse”, Harry N Abrams Inc

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• The role of the artist, like that of the scholar, consists of seizing current truths often repeated to him, but which will take on new meaning for him and which he will make his own when he has grasped their deepest significance.

  Henri Matisse

  Artist, Roles, Currents

  Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1995). “Matisse on Art”, p.42, Univ of California Press

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• Perhaps I might be satisfied, momentarily, with a work finished at one sitting, but I would soon get bored looking at it; therefore, I prefer to continue working on it so that later I may recognize it as a work of my mind.

  Henri Matisse

  Bored, Mind, Finishing

  "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.

  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

• An artist who wants to transpose a composition onto a larger canvas must conceive it over again in order to preserve its expression; he must alter its character and not just fill in the squares into which he has divided his canvas.

  Henri Matisse

  Character, Artist, Squares

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

  5 Copy quote

• If it is practiced by a man of taste, the photograph will have the appearance of art (but) the photographer must...intervene as little as possible, so as not to lose the objective charm which it naturally possesses.

  Henri Matisse

  Photography, Art, Men

  7 Copy quote

• A young woman has young claws, well sharpened. If she has character, that is. And if she hasn't so much the worse for you.

  Henri Matisse

  Character, Young, Claws

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• It has bothered me all my life that I do not paint like everybody else.

  Henri Matisse

  Cute, Art, Paint

  18 Copy quote

• The arts have a development which comes not only from the individual but also from a whole acquired force, the civilization which precedes us. One cannot do just anything. A talented artist cannot do whatever he pleases. If he only used his gifts, he would not exist. We are not the masters of what we produce. It is imposed on us.

  Henri Matisse

  Art, Civilization, Development

  Hayward Gallery, Henri Matisse, Arts Council of Great Britain (1968). “Matisse: 1869-1954. A retrospective exhibition”

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• Composition is the art of arranging in a decorative manner the various elements which the painter uses to express his sentiments. In a picture every separate part will be visible and... everything which has no utility in the picture is for that reason harmful.

  Henri Matisse

  Art, Use, Elements

  19 Copy quote

• Jazz is rhythm and meaning.

  Henri Matisse

  Inspirational, Music, Jazz

  Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1995). “Matisse on Art”, p.216, Univ of California Press

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• 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

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• Do remember that one line does nothing; it is only in relation to another that it creates a volume.

  Henri Matisse

  Doe, Lines, One Line

  Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1995). “Matisse on Art”, p.48, Univ of California Press

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• From the moment I held the box of colors in my hands, I knew this was my life. I threw myself into it like a beast that plunges towards the thing it loves.

  Henri Matisse

  Hands, Color, Moments

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

  Henri Matisse

  Art, America, Foundation

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• A colourist makes his presence known even in a simple charcoal drawing.

  Henri Matisse

  Simple, Drawing, Charcoal

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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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