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The common error of us all in late Impressionism was to search above all for the light. It would have been better first to search for the Kingdom of God and his justice, that is to say for the expression of our spirit in beauty, and the rest would have arrived naturally.
Maurice Denis -
..the classical aesthetic offers us at the same time a method of thinking and a method of wanting to be, a moral and at the same time a psychology.. .The classical tradition as a whole, by the logic of the effort and the greatness of results, is in some way parallel with the religious tradition of humanity.
Maurice Denis
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Painting is first of all the art of imitation, and not the servant of some imaginary 'purity'
Maurice Denis -
To synthesize is not necessarily to simplify in the sense of suppressing certain parts of the object: it is to simplify in the sense of rendering intelligible. It is, in short, to put in hierarchic order: to set each picture to a single rhythm, to a dominant; it is sacrifice, to subordinate - to generalize.
Maurice Denis -
I believe that art should sanctify nature.
Maurice Denis -
Don't lose sight of the essential objectives of painting, which are expression, emotion, delectation; to understand the means, to paint decoratively, to exalt form and color.
Maurice Denis -
Art is no longer a purely visual experience.. ..it is a work of our intellect triggered by nature.. ..the imagination again become the queen of our strengths and we liberate our sensitivity.
Maurice Denis -
The sublime is to approach the subject or wall with an attitude that is grand, noble, and in no way petty..
Maurice Denis
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All artists are now free to express their own personality.
Maurice Denis -
Art is no longer a visual sensation that we gather, like a photograph, as it were, of nature. No, it is a creation of our spirit, for which nature is only the occasion.
Maurice Denis -
Remember that a painting - before it is a battle horse, a nude model, or some anecdote - is essentially a flat surface covered with colours assembled in a certain order.
Maurice Denis -
Art is when things appear rounded.
Maurice Denis -
All that is necessary to paint well is to be sincere.
Maurice Denis -
Decorative and edifying. That is what I want art to be before anything else.
Maurice Denis
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What amazement, followed by what a revelation! In place of windows opening on nature, like the impressionists, these were surfaces which were solidly decorative, powerfully colorful, bordered with brutal strokes, partitioned.
Maurice Denis -
Think of late paintings where Christ is the central figure.. .Remember the large mosaics of Rome. Reconcile the employment of large-scale decorative means and the direct emotions of nature.
Maurice Denis -
..Every work of art is a transposition,a caricature,the passionate equivalent of a sensation received.
Maurice Denis