Great Throughts Treasury

"Rules have no existence outside of individuals."

"All art worthy of the name is religious. Be it a creation of lines and colors, if it is not religious, it does not exist. If it is not religious, it is only a matter of documentary art, anecdotal art, which is no longer art."

"Work cures everything. "

"Creativity takes courage. "

"I didn't expect to recover from my second operation but since I did, I consider that I'm living on borrowed time. Every day that dawns is a gift to me and I take it in that way. I accept it gratefully without looking beyond it. I completely forget my physical suffering and all the unpleasantness of my present condition and I think only of the joy of seeing the sun rise once more and of being able to work a little bit, even under difficult conditions."

"A certain blue enters your soul. A certain red has an effect on your blood-pressure."

"A certain color tones you up. It's the concentration of timbres."

"A colorist makes his presence known even in a simple charcoal drawing."

"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."

"A large part of the beauty of a picture arises from the struggle which an artist wages with his limited medium."

"A musician once said: In art, truth and reality begin when one no longer understands what one is doing or what one knows, and when there remains an energy that is all the stronger for being constrained, controlled and compressed. It is therefore necessary to present oneself with the greatest humility: white, pure and candid with a mind as if empty, in a spiritual state analogous to that of a communicant approaching the Lord's Table. Obviously it is necessary to have all of one's experience behind one, but to preserve the freshness of one's instincts."

"A new painting is a unique event, a birth, which enriches the universe as it is grasped by the human mind, by bringing a new form into it."

"A painter who addresses the public not just in order to present his works, but to reveal some of his ideas on the art of painting, exposes himself to several dangers. In the first place, knowing that many people like to think of painting as an appendage of literature and therefore want it to express not general ideas suited to pictorial means, but specifically literary ideas, I fear that one will look with astonishment upon the painter who ventures to invade the domain of the literary man. As a matter of fact, I am fully aware that a painter?s best spokesman is his work. However, such painters as Signac, Desvallieres, Denis, Blanche, Guerin and Bernard have written on such matters and been well received by various periodicals. Personally, I shall simply try to state my feelings and aspirations as a painter without worrying about the writing. But now I foresee the danger of appearing to contradict myself. I feel very strongly the tie between my earlier and my recent works, but I do not think exactly the way I thought yesterday. Or rather, my basic idea has not changed, but my thought has evolved, and my modes of expression have followed my thoughts. I do not repudiate any of my paintings but there is not one of them that I would not redo differently, if I had it to redo. My destination is always the same but I work out a different route to get there. Finally, if I mention the name of this or that artist it will be to point out how our manners differ, and it may seem that I am belittling his work. Thus I risk being accused of injustice towards painters whose aims and results I best understand, or whose accomplishments I most appreciate, whereas I will have used them as examples, not to establish my superiority over them, but to show more clearly, through what they have done, what I am attempting to do."

"A picture must possess a real power to generate light and for a long time now I've been conscious of expressing myself through light or rather in light."

"A rapid rendering of a landscape represents only one moment of its existence. I prefer, by insisting upon its essential character, to risk losing charm in order to gain greater stability."

"A thimbleful of red is redder than a bucketful."

"A work of art is a collection of signs invented during execution to suit the needs of their position."

"A work of art must be harmonious in its entirety: any superfluous detail would replace some other essential detail in the mind of the spectator. Composition, the aim of which should be expression, is modified according to the surface to be covered. If I take a sheet of paper of a given size, my drawing will have a necessary. Relationship to its format. I would not repeat this drawing on another sheet of different proportions, for example, rectangular instead of square. Nor should I be satisfied with a mere enlargement, had I to transfer the drawing to a sheet the same shape, but ten times larger. A drawing must have an expansive force which gives life to the things around it. An artist who wants to transpose a composition from one canvas to another larger one must conceive it anew in order to preserve its expression; he must alter its character and not just square it up onto the larger canvas. Both harmonies and dissonances of color can produce agreeable effects. Often when I start to work I record fresh and superficial sensations during the first session. A few years ago I was sometimes satisfied with the result. But today if I were satisfied with this, now that I think I can see further, my picture would have a vagueness in it: I should have recorded the fugitive sensations of a moment which could not completely define my feelings and which I should barely recognize the next day."

"A work of art must carry in itself its complete significance and impose it upon the beholder even before he can identify the subject-matter. When I see the Giotto frescoes at Padua I do not trouble to recognize which scene of the life of Christ I have before me, but I perceive instantly the sentiment which radiates from it and which is instinct in the composition in every line and color."

"A young painter who cannot liberate himself from the influence of past generations is digging his own grave."

"A young woman has young claws, well sharpened. If she has character, that is. And if she hasn't so much the worse for you."

"Above all, an artist must never be too easily satisfied with what he has done."

"After a half-century of hard work and reflection the wall is still there."

"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."

"An artist is an explorer. He has to begin by self-discovery and by observation of his own procedures. After that he must not feel under any constraint."

"An artist must never be a prisoner. Prisoner? An artist should never be a prisoner of himself, prisoner of style, prisoner of reputation, prisoner of success, etc."

"An artist must possess Nature. He must identify himself with her rhythms, by effort that will prepare the mastery which will later enable him to express himself in his own language."

"An artist must recognize, when he is reasoning, that his picture is an artifice; but when he is painting, he should feel that he has copied nature. And even when he departs from nature, he must do it with the conviction that it is only to interpret her more fully."

"An artist should never be a prisoner of himself, a prisoner of manner, a prisoner of reputation, or a prisoner of success."

"An artist who wants to transpose a composition onto a larger canvas must conceive it over again in order to preserve its expression; he must alter its character and not just fill in the squares into which he has divided his canvas."

"Another word for creativity is courage."

"Art should be something like a good armchair in which to rest from physical fatigue."

"At each stage I reach a balance, a conclusion. At the next sitting, if I find that there is a weakness in the whole, I make my way back into the picture by means of the weakness ? I re-enter through the breach ? and I reconceive the whole. Thus everything becomes fluid again."

"Cezanne, you see, is a sort of God of painting."

"Color helps to express light, not the physical phenomenon, but the only light that really exists, that in the artist's brain."

"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."

"Composition, the aim of which is expression, alters itself according to the surface to be covered. If I take a sheet of paper of given dimensions I will jot down a drawing which will have a necessary relation to its format ? I would not repeat this drawing on another sheet of different dimensions, for instance on a rectangular sheet? a drawing must have a power of expansion which can bring to life the space which surrounds it."

"Creative people are curious, flexible, persistent and independent with a tremendous spirit of adventure and a love of play."

"Cutting directly into color reminds me of a sculptor's carving into stone."

"Cutting into color reminds me of the sculptor's direct carving."

"Derive happiness in oneself from a good day's work, from illuminating the fog that surrounds us."

"Did not the artists of the great age of Japanese art change names many times during their careers? I like that; they wanted to safeguard their freedom."

"Do I believe in God? Yes, when I am working. When I am submissive and modest, I feel myself to be greatly helped by someone who causes me to do things that exceed my capabilities. However, I cannot acknowledge him because it is as if I were to find myself before a conjuror whose sleight of hand eludes me."

"Don't wait for inspiration. It comes while one is working."

"Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence."

"Drawing is of the spirit; color is of the senses."

"Drawing with scissors: To cut to the quick in color reminds me of the direct cutting of sculptors."

"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."

"Exactitude is not truth."

"Expression for me does not reside in passions glowing in a human face or manifested by violent movement. The entire arrangement of my picture is expressive; the place occupied by my figures, the empty space around them, the proportions, everything has its share. Composition is the art of arranging in a decorative manner the diverse elements at the painter's command to express his feelings. In a picture every part will be visible and will play its appointed role, whether it be principal or secondary. Everything that is not useful in the picture is, it follows, harmful. A work of art must be harmonious in its entirety: any superfluous detail would replace some other essential detail in the mind of the spectator."