When I Stand Before A Canvas, I

My Characters Have Undergone The Same Process Of Simplification As The Colors. Now That They Have Been Simplified, They Appear More Human And Alive Than If They Had Been Represented In All Their Details.

Little By Little, I've Reached The Stage Of Using Only A Small Number Of Forms And Colors. It's Not The First Time That Painting Has Been Done With A Very Narrow Range Of Colors. The Frescoes Of The Tenth Century Are Painted Like This. For Me, They Are Magnificent Things.

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.

I Believe That To Do Anything In This World One Needs A Love For Risk And Adventure, And Above All, To Be Able To Do Without What Middle-class Families Call "future."

My Way Is To Seize An Image The Moment It Has Formed In My Mind, To Trap It As A Bird And To Pin It At Once To Canvas. Afterward I Start To Tame It, To Master It. I Bring It Under Control And I Develop It.