When I Paint Green, It Doesn't Mean

If People Knew What Matisse, Supposedly The Painter Of Happiness, Had Gone Through, The Anguish And Tragedy He Had To Overcome To Manage To Capture That Light Which Has Never Left Him, If People Knew All That, They Would Also Realize That This Happiness, This Light, This Dispassionate Wisdom Which Seems To Be Mine, Are Sometimes Well-deserved, Given The Severity Of My Trials.

All My Efforts Go Into Creating An Art That Can Be Understood By Everyone.

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.

My Choice Of Colors Does Not Rest On Any Scientific Theory, It Is Based On Observation, On Feeling, On The Experience Of My Sensibility.

One Must, Of Course, Have One's Entire Experience Behind One And Not Have Lost The Freshness Of Instinct.