Quotes We Love: Henri Matisse
“The Sorrows of The King ” by Henri Matisse, 1952,
“…this courage is essential to the artist, who has to look at everything as though he were seeing it for the first time: He has to look at life as he did when he was a child and, if he loses that faculty, he cannot express himself in an original, that is, a personal way.”
Henri Matisse,
Nice 1925
Henri Matisse, 1953 (extract from “Looking at Life through the eyes of a child”)
Click image right for more on Matisse.
Quotes We Love: Ben Okri
Ben Okri
” A delighted mood blossomed in him as he passed the glittering arcades and marketplaces where the Invisibles from all over the world came to buy and sell ideas. Here they traded in philosophies, inspirations, intuitions, prophecies, paradoxes, riddles, enigmas, visions and dreams. Enigmas were their trinkets, philosophies their jewelleries, paradoxes their silver, clarity their measure, inspiration their gold, prophecy their language, vision their play and dreams their standards.”
Ben Okri, “Astonishing the Gods”
“Astonishing the Gods”
By Ben Okri
1995
Publisher: Phoenix
Alison Harper’s “Angels Wear Silver” at the Compass Gallery Oct-Nov 1995
Click on images to enlarge.
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- Angels Wear Silver Cover Page
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- Forward by Sandy Moffat OBE
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- Page One
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- Page Two
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- Page Three
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- Page Four
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- Page Five
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- Alison Harper’s “Angels Wear Silver” Compass Gallery 1995 Page Six
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- Extract from Alison Harper’s “Angels Wear Silver” Exhibition 1995 Page Seven
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- Page Eight
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- Biography & Acknowledgements
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- Angels Wear Silver Back Cover
Matisse on Looking at Life…
Matisse: Self Portrait
1918: Collection Musée Matisse, Le Cateau-Cambrésis
(Extract from a conversation with Alison Harper)
“I have always been an admirer of Henri Matisse and when I begun to think of a quote that I have drawn inspiration from this is what I recalled and would like to share…
Matisse notes that creation begins with vision, which is itself a creative operation. His affirmation that it is essential for the artist to look at everything as if he were seeing it for the first time, as though he were a child, recalls the Impressionist painters’ belief in the importance of preserving a fresh and innocent vision… without which it would be impossible to express oneself in an original personal way.
Alison Harper & Henri Matisse’s Snail
1996 Tate Modern
“…this courage is essential to the artist, who has to look at everything as though he were seeing it for the first time: He has to look at life as he did when he was a child and, if he loses that faculty, he can not express himself in an original, that is, a personal way.”
Matisse, 1953.