artist quotes

5 Art Quotes by Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse played an impactful role in the development of art in the 20th century. He is well known for his use of color, form, and shape.

Did you know that Matisse had planned to be a lawyer and even passed the bar? He didn’t become interested in art until he was 21 years old. Using a set of oils he received from his mother, he began painting while recuperating from appendicitis. This changed the trajectory of his life. 

Here are 5 quotes attributed to Matisse:

“I have always tried to hide my efforts and wished my works to have a light joyousness of springtime which never lets anyone suspect the labors it has cost me.”

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

“I don’t paint things. I only paint the difference between things.”

“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.”

“I would like to recapture that freshness of vision which is characteristic of extreme youth when all the world is new to it.”

5 Art Quotes by Wassily Kandinsky

Many years ago, I had the joy of visiting a retrospective exhibit of Wassily Kandinsky’s paintings. His work and that exhibit has stayed with me ever since. It felt as if each painting drew me into his inner world.

I have been most inspired by the way Kandinsky approached two of his greatest influences: music and spirituality.

His book, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, is one of the books that lives on my night table.

Here are 5 of his quotes:

“Lend your ears to music. Open your eyes to painting, and… stop thinking! Just ask yourself whether the work has enabled you to ‘walk about’ into a hitherto unknown world. If the answer is yes, what more do you want?”

“Every man who steeps himself in the spiritual possibilities of his heart is a valuable helper in the building of the spiritual pyramid which will someday reach to heaven.”

“The work of art is born of the artist in a mysterious and secret way. From him it gains life and being. Nor is its existence casual and inconsequent. But it has a definite and purposeful strength alike in its material and spiritual life.”

“The impact of the acute angle of a triangle on a circle produces an effect no less powerful than the finger of GOD touching the finger of Adam in Michelangelo.”

“Every work of art is the child of its age and, in many cases, the mother of our emotions. It follows that each period of culture produces an art of its own which can never be repeated.”