Paul Gauguin Quotes
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When the physical organism breaks up, the soul survives. It then takes on another body.
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By the combination of lines and colors, under the pretext of some motif taken from nature, I create symphonies and harmonies that represent nothing absolutely real in the ordinary sense of the word but are intended to give rise to thoughts as music does.
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Do you know what will soon be the ultimate in truth? - photography, once it begins to reproduce colors, and that won't be long in coming. And yet you want an intelligent man to sweat for months so as to give the illusion he can do something as well as an ingenious little machine can!
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Oh mysterious world... I have become better for having understood and having loved thy human soul - a flower which has ceased to bloom and whose fragrance no one henceforth will breathe.
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Night is here. All is at rest. My eyes close in order to see without actually understanding the dream that flees before men infinite space; and I experience the languorous sensation produced by the mournful procession of my hopes.
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Without delay I began work, without hesitation and all of a fever.
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A great sentiment can be rendered immediately. Dream on it and look for the simplest form in which you can express it.
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It was so simple to paint things as I saw them; to put without special calculation a red close to a blue.
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Many people say that I don't know how to draw because I don't draw particular forms. When will they understand that execution, drawing and color (in other words, style) must be in harmony with the poem?
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Civilization is what makes you sick.
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I have always wanted a mistress who was fat, and I have never found one. To make a fool of me, they are always pregnant.
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I have come to an unalterable decision - to go and live forever in Polynesia. Then I can end my days in peace and freedom, without thoughts of tomorrow and this eternal struggle against idiots.
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My eyes close and uncomprehendingly see the dream in the infinite space that stretches away, elusive, before me.
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How do you see those tree?... They are yellow. Well then put down yellow. And that shadow is rather blue. So render it with pure ultramarine. Those red leaves? Use vermillion.
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A critic in my house sees some paintings. Greatly perturbed, he asks for my drawings. My drawings? Never! They are my letters, my secrets.
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In painting one must search rather for suggestion than for description, as is done in music.
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Why work? The gods are there to lavish upon the faithful the good gifts of nature.
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I plunged eagerly and passionately into the wilderness, as if in the hope of thus penetrating into the very heart of this Nature, powerful and maternal, there to blend with her living elements.
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There is always a heavy demand for fresh mediocrity. In every generation the least cultivated taste has the largest appetite.
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In order to produce something new, you have to return to the original source, to the childhood of mankind.
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Art is either revolution or plagiarism
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The history of modern art is also the history of the progressive loss of art's audience. Art has increasingly become the concern of the artist and the bafflement of the public.
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Let everything about you breathe the calm and peace of the soul.
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One's state of mind is three-quarters of what counts, so it has to be carefully nurtured if you want to do something great and lasting.