Top 199 Quotes & Sayings by Henri Matisse - Page 4

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.

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.

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.

Precision is not reality

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.

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.

The living model, the naked body of a woman, is the privileged seat of feeling, but also of questioning... The model must mark you, awaken in you an emotion which you seek in turn to express.

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

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

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.

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

The wall around the window does not create two worlds.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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