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Each work of art is a collection of signs invented during the picture's execution to suit the needs of their position. Taken out of the composition for which they were created, these signs have no further use.

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
Work
Suits
Picture
Signs
Created
Collection
Position
Execution
Taken
Suit
Use
Composition
Art
Collections
Needs
Invented

More quotes by Henri Matisse

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Beauty comes from the balance between two and three dimensions, between abstraction and representation - I seek the equilibrium behind changing appearances.
Henri Matisse
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When I put a green, it is not grass. When I put a blue, it is not the sky.
Henri Matisse
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A work should contain its total meaning within itself and should impress it on the spectator before he even knows the subject.
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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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Much of the beauty that arises in art comes from the struggle an artist wages with his limited medium.
Henri Matisse
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Composition is the art of arranging in a decorative manner the various elements which the painter uses to express his sentiments. In a picture every separate part will be visible and... everything which has no utility in the picture is for that reason harmful.
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For my part I have never avoided the influence of others. I would have considered it cowardice and a lack of sincerity toward myself.
Henri Matisse
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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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Do remember that one line does nothing it is only in relation to another that it creates a volume.
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You study, you learn, but you guard the original naivete. It has to be within you, as desire for drink is within the drunkard or love is within the lover.
Henri Matisse
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It is not enough to place colors, however beautiful, one beside the other colors must also react on one another. Otherwise, you have cacophony.
Henri Matisse
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Seek the strongest color effect possible... the content is of no importance.
Henri Matisse
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Color exists in itself, possessing its own beauty.
Henri Matisse
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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.
Henri Matisse
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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.
Henri Matisse
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I dream of an art of balance, of quietness, something analogous to a good armchair.
Henri Matisse
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...The more a picture has to give, the greater it is.
Henri Matisse
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The model for me is a touchstone, it is a door which I must break open in order to reach the garden in which I am alone and feel good, even the model exists only for what use I can make of it.
Henri Matisse
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Whoever wishes to devote himself to painting should begin by cutting out his own tongue
Henri Matisse
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Never ruin a good painting with the truth.
Henri Matisse