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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

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Henri Matisse
Age: 84 †
Born: 1869
Born: December 31
Died: 1954
Died: November 3
Artist
Designer
Drawer
Exlibrist
Graphic Artist
Painter
Printmaker
Sculptor
Le Cateau
Henri-Émile-Benoît Matisse
Henri Emile Benoît Matisse
Henri Emile Benoit Matisse
Anri Matiss
Henri-Emile-Benoît Matisse
Henri-Emile-Benoit Matisse
H. Matisse
matisse h.
h. matisse
matisse henri
Henri-Matisse
Matisse
Elements
Choice
Expressive
Beyond
Rainbow
Color
Mentality
Modern
Colors
Choices
Necessity
Use
Basic
Felt
Historical

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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 labors it has cost me.
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I want to reach that condensation of sensations that constitutes a picture.
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Would not it be best to leave room to mystery?
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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 details would, in the mind of the beholder, encroach upon the essential elements.
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Color exists in itself, possessing its own beauty.
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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 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.
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When an artist or student draws a nude figure with painstaking care, the result is drawing, and not emotion.
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I don't paint things. I only paint the difference between things.
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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.
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I have been no more than a medium, as it were.
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Nothing can be accomplished without love.
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A young painter who cannot liberate himself from the influence of past generations is digging his own grave.
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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.
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When I put a green, it is not grass. When I put a blue, it is not the sky.
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...The more a picture has to give, the greater it is.
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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.
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An artist must possess Nature. He must identify himself with her rhythm, by efforts that will prepare the mastery which will later enable him to express himself in his own language.
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The truly original artist invents his own signs.
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I shan't get free of my emotion by copying the tree faithfully, or by drawing its leaves one by one in the common language, but only after identifying myself with it.
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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.
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