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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.

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
Doesn
Determine
Must
Harmony
Image
Harmonize
Completely
Forge
Value
Signs
Courses
Peculiar
Course
Invention
Values
Sign

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I am unable to distinguish between the feeling I have for life and my way of expressing it.
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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.
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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.
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Ever since there have been men, man has given himself over to too little joy. That alone, my brothers, is our original sin. I should believe only in a God who understood how to dance.
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I wouldn't mind turning into a vermilion goldfish.
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The things that are acquired consciously permit us to express ourselves unconsciously with a certain richness.
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A distinction is made between artists who work directly from nature and those who work purely from imagination. Neither if these methods should be preferred to the exclusion of the other. Often both are used in turn by the same man.
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Simple colours can affect the intimate feelings with all the more force because they are simple.
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When I started to paint I felt transported into a kind of paradise... In everyday life I was usually bored and vexed... Starting to paint I felt gloriously free.
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Derive happiness in oneself from a good day's work, from illuminating the fog that surrounds us.
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All my efforts go into creating an art that can be understood by everyone.
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I have been no more than a medium, as it were.
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Seeing is in itself a creative act which requires effort.
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The sign is determined at the moment I use it and for the object of which it must form a part. For this reason I cannot determine in advance signs which never change, and which would be like writing: that would paralyze the freedom of my invention.
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Do remember that one line does nothing it is only in relation to another that it creates a volume.
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When a painting is finished, it's like a new born child, and the artist himself must have time for understanding. How then do you expect an amateur to understand that which the artist dos not yet comprehend.
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You must forget all your theories, all your ideas before the subject. What part of these is really your own will be expressed in your expression of the emotion awakened in you by the subject.
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I don't know whether I believe in God or not. I think, really, I'm some sort of Buddhist. But the essential thing is to put oneself in a frame of mind which is close to that of prayer.
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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 may have found for the tree.
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Truth and reality in art do not arise until you no longer understand what you are doing and are capable of but nevertheless sense a power that grows in proportion to your resistance.
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