The Picture Should Be Fecund. It Must

For Me An Object Is Something Living. This Cigarette Or This Box Of Matches Contains A Secret Life Much More Intense Than That Of Certain Human Beings.

What I Am Looking For... Is An Immobile Movement, Something Which Would Be The Equivalent Of What Is Called The Eloquence Of Silence, Or What St. John Of The Cross, I Think It Was, Described With The Term 'mute Music'.

The More Ignoble I Find Life, The More Strongly I React By Contradiction, In Humour And In An Outburst Of Liberty And Expansion.

For Me, A Picture Should Be Like Sparks. It Must Dazzle Like The Beauty Of A Woman Or A Poem. It Must Have Radiance; It Must Be Like Those Stones Which Pyrenean Shepherds Use To Light Their Pipes.

Never, Never Do I Set To Work On A Canvas In The State It Comes In From The Shop. I Provoke Accidents - A Form, A Splotch Of Color. Any Accident Is Good Enough. I Let The Matiere Decide. Then I Prepare A Ground By, For Example, Wiping My Brushes On The Canvas. Letting Fall Some Drops Of Turpentine On It Would Do Just As Well. If I Want To Make A Drawing I Crumple The Sheet Of Paper Or I Wet It; The Flowing Water Traces A Line And This Line May Suggest What Is To Come Next.