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Art Quotes by Henri Matisse

73 Art quotes by Henri Matisse

All Art quotes Henri Matisse’s page

Henri Matisse says an artist must never become a prisoner, and that a painting can spread joy through its colors and balance. He believes art should capture the difference between things, not just reproduce them, and that a clear vision drives every creative effort.

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Creativity takes cougrage

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An artist must not feel under any constraint.

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All art worthy of the name is religious.

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An artist is an explorer.

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Impressionism is the newspaper of the soul.

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Would not it be best to leave room to mystery?

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The truly original artist invents his own signs.

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What I dream of is an art of balance.

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The artist begins with a vision - a creative operation requiring effort. Creativity takes courage.

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

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Modern art spreads joy around by its color, which calms us.

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...I am driven on by an idea that I really only grasp as it grows with the picture.

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Creation is the artist's true function; where there is no creation there is no art.

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

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Art should be something like a good armchair in which to rest from physical fatigue.

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Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence.

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It is only after years of preparation that the young artist should touch color - not color used descriptively, that is, but…

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An artist is an explorer. He has to begin by self-discovery and by observation of his own procedure. After that he must…

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I have to create an object which resembles the tree. The sign for a tree, and not the sign that other artists…

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The portrait is one of the most curious art forms. It demands special qualities in the artist, and an almost total kinship…

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Time extracts various values from a painter's work. When these values are exhausted the pictures are forgotten, and the more a picture…

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All that is not useful in a picture is detrimental. A work of art must be harmonious in its entirety; for superfluous…

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Hatred, rancor, and the spirit of vengeance are useless baggage to the artist. His road is difficult enough for him to cleanse…

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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…

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Truth and reality in art begin at the point where the artist ceases to understand what he is doing and capable of…

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If it is practiced by a man of taste, the photograph will have the appearance of art (but) the photographer must...intervene as…

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What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter - a…

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The arts have a development which comes not only from the individual but also from a whole acquired force, the civilization which…

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Photographs will always be impressive because they show us nature, and all artists will find in them a world of sensations. The…

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An artist who wants to transpose a composition onto a larger canvas must conceive it over again in order to preserve its…

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Those who work in a preconceived style, deliberately turning their backs on nature, miss the truth. An artist must recognize, when he…

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It is my dream to create an art which is filled with balance, purity and calmness, freed from a subject matter that…

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Everything that we see in our daily lives is more or less distorted by acquired habits and this is perhaps more evident…

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Slowly I discovered the secret of my art. It consists of a meditation on nature, on the expression of a dream which…

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I have always sought to be understood and, while I was taken to task by critics or colleagues, I thought they were…

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Art is an escape from reality.

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I don't paint things. I only paint the difference between things.

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All my efforts go into creating an art that can be understood by everyone.

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A painting in an interior spreads joy around it by the colors, which calm us.

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

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More by Henri Matisse

The wall around the window does not create two worlds.

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

To arrive is to be in prison.

When I saw what a mess everything was in I asked for my money back on the ticket. I would have felt I was…

A painting in an interior spreads joy around it by the colors, which calm us.

Color was not given to us in order that we should imitate Nature. It was given to us so that we can express our…

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…

I have always tried to hide my efforts and wished my works to have a light joyousness of springtime which never lets anyone suspect…

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

One gets into a state of creativity by conscious work.

My pictures are made up of four or five colors that collide with one another…

What I dream of is an art of balance.

...I am driven on by an idea that I really only grasp as it grows with the picture.

I don't paint things. I only paint the difference between things.

After a half-century of hard work and reflection the wall is still there.