Quote collection
437 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"I would like to manage to prevent people from ever seeing how a picture of mine has been done. What can it possibly matter? What I want is that the only thing emanating from my pictures should be emotion."
"What do you think an artist is? ...he is a political being, constantly aware of the heart breaking, passionate, or delightful things that happen in the world, shaping himself completely in their image. Painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war."
"I am a communist and my painting is a communist painting. But if I were a shoemaker, Royalist or Communist or anything else, I would not necessarily hammer my shoes in any special way to show my politics."
"To make oneself hated is more difficult than to make oneself loved."
"I have discovered photography. Now I can kill myself. I have nothing else to learn."
"No doubt, it is useful for an artist to know all the forms of art which have preceded or which accompany his. That is a sign of strength if it is a question of looking for a stimulus or recognizing mistakes he must avoid."
"The painter goes through states of fullness and evaluation. That is the whole secret of art."
"Why should I copy this owl, this sea urchin? Why should I try to imitate nature? I might just as well try to trace a perfect circle."
"I want to know one thing, what is color?"
"Matisse makes a drawing, then he makes a copy of it. He copies it five times, ten times, always clarifying the line. He’s convinced that the last, the most stripped down, is the best, the purest, the definitive one; and in fact, most of the time, it was the first. In drawing, nothing is better than the first attempt."
"It seems strange to me that someone thought of making marble statues."
"And fame, for a painter means sales, gains, fortune, riches. And today, as you know, I am celebrated. I am rich."
"Imitators? All right! Disciples if you like. But disciples be damned. It's not interesting."
"We didn't want to sign the painting itself, that would have interfered with the composition. And even later, for that reason or for another, I sometimes marked my canvases on the back. If you don't see my signature and the date, madam, it's because the frame is hiding it."
"They are not men, they are not women, they are Americans."
"Today we haven't the heart to expel the painters and poets from society because we refuse to admit to ourselves that there is any danger in keeping them in our midst."
"We must not discriminate between things. Where things are concerned there are no class distinctions. We must pick out what is good for us where we can find it."
"There ought to be an absolute dictatorship... a dictatorship of painters... a dictatorship of one painter... to suppress all those who have betrayed us."
"Inspiration exists, but you have to find it working."
"Rhythm is a perception of time... when drawing, the tiredness of the hand is a rhythm."