I've been forty years discovering that the queen of all colors is black.
Henri MatisseRead
I am curious about color as one would be visiting a new country, because I have never concentrated so closely on color expression. Up to now I have waited at the gates of the temple.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses a deep curiosity and exploration of color, akin to exploring a new place.
Henri Matisse compares his fascination with color to the thrill of discovering a new country. He reveals that his previous engagement with color has been superficial, as if he were merely waiting at the entrance to a temple, and now he is ready to immerse himself fully in the vibrant world of color expression.
Themes
ColorCuriosityExplorationExpressionArt
In practice
Example use cases
An art teacher could use this quote to inspire students to explore color further in their projects.
More from Henri Matisse
All quotes →Whoever wishes to devote himself to painting should begin by cutting out his own tongue
Henri MatisseRead
Purer colors... have in themselves, independently of the objects they serve to express, a significant action on the feelings of those who look at them.
Henri MatisseRead
It is not enough to place colors, however beautiful, one beside the other; colors must also react on one another. Otherwise, you have cacophony.
Henri MatisseRead
Color, even more than drawing, is a means of liberation.
Henri MatisseRead
Don't try to be original. Be simple. Be good technically, and if there is something in you, it will come out.
Henri MatisseRead
Similar quotes
I like to take these unusual characters and then make them as normal as possible, because we all know that the tragedy and the abnormal always hides itself behind the normal.
Isabelle HuppertRead
Fiction does not spring into the world fully grown, like Athena. It is the process of writing and rewriting that makes a fiction original, if not profound.
John GardnerRead
I like Wagner's music better than anybody's. It is so loud that one can talk the whole time without other people hearing what one says.
Oscar WildeRead
I'm not likely to forget where I've been and what I've done and learned. I think it's just as important to play new instruments as to play new pieces. The old ones are getting scarcer and the new ones more and more wonderful.
Yo-Yo MaRead
The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web. The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem.
Theodore Isaac RubinRead
Art for art's sake makes no more sense than gin for gin's sake.
W. Somerset MaughamRead