Creation is the artist's true function; where there is no creation there is no art. — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
What's so astonishing about not understanding? There are so many things in art, beginning with art itself, that one doesn't understand. A… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
Time extracts various values from a painter's work. When these values are exhausted the pictures are forgotten, and the more a picture… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
An artist must never be a prisoner. Prisoner? An artist should never be a prisoner of himself, prisoner of style, prisoner of… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
An artist is an explorer. He has to begin by self-discovery and by observation of his own procedure. After that he must… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
An artist must possess Nature. He must identify himself with her rhythm, by efforts that will prepare the mastery which will later… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
A work of art must carry in itself its complete significance and impose it upon the beholder even before he can identify… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
I have to create an object which resembles the tree. The sign for a tree, and not the sign that other artists… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
It would be a mistake to ascribe this creative power to an inborn talent. In art, the genius creator is not just… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
I dream of an art of balance, of quietness, something analogous to a good armchair. — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
It has bothered me all my life that I do not paint like everybody else. — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
The effort to see things without distortion takes something like courage and this courage is essential to the artist, who has to… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
Much of the beauty that arises in art comes from the struggle an artist wages with his limited medium. — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
The portrait is one of the most curious art forms. It demands special qualities in the artist, and an almost total kinship… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
Hatred, rancor, and the spirit of vengeance are useless baggage to the artist. His road is difficult enough for him to cleanse… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
The arts have a development which comes not only from the individual but also from a whole acquired force, the civilization which… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
When a painting is finished, it's like a new born child, and the artist himself must have time for understanding. How then… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
The importance of an artist is to be measured by the quantity of new signs which he has introduced to the language… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
An artist who wants to transpose a composition onto a larger canvas must conceive it over again in order to preserve its… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
Those who work in a preconceived style, deliberately turning their backs on nature, miss the truth. An artist must recognize, when he… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
Cutting straight into color reminds me of the direct carving of the sculptor. — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
The artists must see all things as if he were seeing them for the first time. All his life he must see… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
When I saw what a mess everything was in I asked for my money back on the ticket. I would have felt I was… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
A painting in an interior spreads joy around it by the colors, which calm us. — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
Color was not given to us in order that we should imitate Nature. It was given to us so that we can express our… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
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… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
I have always tried to hide my efforts and wished my works to have a light joyousness of springtime which never lets anyone suspect… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
The chief function of color should be to serve expression as well as possible. — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
My pictures are made up of four or five colors that collide with one another… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
