“One thing is sure - we have to transform the three-dimensional world of objects into the two-dimensional world of the canvas.. ..To transform three into two dimensions is for me an experience full of magic in which I glimpse for a moment that fourth dimension which my whole being is seeking.” WorldTwoWholeMomentsThreeMagicOne ThingObjectsSeekingDimensionsFourthCanvasGlimpse Book:Self-Portrait in Words: Collected Writings and Statements, 1903-1950 Source: Self-Portrait in Words: Collected Writings and Statements, 1903-1950
“The individual representation of the object, treated sympathetically or antipathetically, is highly necessary and is an enrichment to the world in form. The elimination of the human relationship causes the vacuum which makes all of us suffer in various degrees - an individual alteration of the details of the object represented is necessary in order to display on the canvas the whole physicals reality.” WorldHumansWholeRealityFormSufferingOrderIndividualCausesObjectsDegreesDetailsVariousTreatedDisplayCanvasRepresentationVacuumsHuman RelationsHuman RelationshipsEliminationAlterationsEnrichment Book:Self-Portrait in Words: Collected Writings and Statements, 1903-1950 Source: Self-Portrait in Words: Collected Writings and Statements, 1903-1950
“Colour, as the strange and magnificent expression of the inscrutable spectrum of Eternity, is beautiful and important to me as a painter; I use it to enrich the canvas and to probe more deeply into the object. Colour also decided, to a certain extent, my spiritual outlook, but it is subordinated to life, and above all, to the treatment of form. Too much emphasis on colour at the expense of form and space would make a double manifestation of itself on the canvas, and this would verge on craft work.” ImportantUseBeautifulSpiritualFormCertainSpaceToo MuchObjectsStrangeExpressionDecidedEternityPainterCraftsManifestationColourTreatmentExpensesMagnificentCanvasEmphasisOutlookSpectrumVergeInscrutable Author:Max Beckmann
“I hardly need to abstract things, for each object is unreal enough already, so unreal that I can only make it real by means of painting.” NeedsMeanI CanRealEnoughObjectsPaintingAbstractAbstractionUnrealEnough Already Book:On My Painting - Max Beckmann Source: On My Painting - Max Beckmann
“In principle, any abstraction of the object is allowed which has a sufficiently strong creative power behind it.” StrongBehindsPrinciplesCreativeObjectsAbstractionCreative Power Author:Max Beckmann
“I think only of objects: of a leg or an arm, of the wonderful sense of foreshortening, breaking through the plane, of the division of space, of the combination of straight lines in relation to curved ones.” ThinkingLinesSpaceWonderfulObjectsArmsRelationLegsCombinationPlanesDivisionAeroplanesStraight Lines Author:Max Beckmann