Talk:Henri Matisse

Unsourced
Wikiquote no longer allows unsourced quotations, and they are in process of being removed from our pages (see Wikiquote:Limits on quotations); but if you can provide a reliable, precise and verifiable source for any quote on this list please move it to Henri Matisse. --Antiquary 18:49, 31 May 2009 (UTC)
 * A young painter who cannot liberate himself from the influence of past generations is digging his own grave.


 * As I create these colored cutouts, it seems to me that I advance joyfully to meet whatever awaits. I do not believe I have ever experienced such peace and harmony as in making these cutout papers.


 * In modern art, it is undoubtedly to Cezanne that I owe the most.


 * Instinct must be thwarted just as one prunes the branches of a tree so that it will grow better.


 * Seek the strongest Color effect possible... the content is of no importance.


 * The artist has but one idea. He is born with it and spends a lifetime developing it and making it breathe. I basically work without theory. I am aware only of the forces I use, and I move along the course of the picture's creation, pushed by an idea that I come to know only gradually as it develops.


 * The essential thing is to spring forth, to express the bolt of lightning one senses upon contact with a thing. The function of the artist is not to translate an observation but to express the shock of the object on his nature; the shock, with the original reaction.


 * We must see all life as if we were children.


 * Without passion there is no art.


 * The artist only sees old truths in a new light,because there are no new truths.


 * What I dream of is an art of balance,of purity and serenity.
 * This is from Notes of a Painter (1908)


 * Composition is the art of arranging in a decorative manner the various elements at the painter's disposal for the expression of his feelings.


 * There is discontinuity between my former paintings and my cut-outs,only with more absloluteness and more abstraction.


 * I had this dance in me for a long time,and I had to put it into La joie de vivre. It was like a rhythm within me that carried me along.


 * A pair of scissors is a ... wonderful instrument ... an occupation I can lose myself in ... my pleasure in cutting things out grows ever greater. Why didn't I think of it before.

Copyright concerns about the "Notes d'un Peintre' (Notes of a Painter) (1908)" section
The current section contains 13 quotes from 4 pages, which seems over the top....however:
 * 1) In France the proprietary rights of the author last for seventy (70) years after his or her death, which makes the 1908 original PD not until 2024.
 * 2) The first quote (and maybe all of those quotes) can trace back to a 1931 source: Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.),, Henri-Matisse Retrospective Exhibition: November 3-December 6, November 3-December 6, 1931 ... New York. If the copyright of that work isn't renewed it could mean that this work is already PD..!?

As long as there is no confirmation, I think we cannot presume, this is a PD text. -- Mdd (talk) 15:02, 7 April 2017 (UTC)


 * I noticed the 1931 (original) translaton is online here at moma.org. A first extra page bears a 2016 copyright stamp, yet this publication itself doesn't contain a copyright-renewed stamp, which might mean that the publication is PD.


 * In this work the NOTES OF A PAINTER (1908) is published in full from p. 29 to p. 36, which contains the following editorial notes:
 * These notes were published as Notes d'un Peintre in the "La Grande Revue, Paris, December 25, igo8. Though they are now over twenty years old they remain the most complete and authoritative statement by Matisse thus far published. As they are not easily available to students they are here translated into English and republished in their entirety. The marginal notations have been added for the convenience of the reader.
 * Since the translator is not mentioned, I can only assume it was ordered by the MOMA. -- Mdd (talk) 15:56, 7 April 2017 (UTC)
 * A Stanford University database lists more than a dozen works by Alfred Barr have been renewed, see here; and multiple books about Matise, see here. -- Mdd (talk) 18:02, 7 April 2017 (UTC)