Edward Hopper: "Non dipingo quello che vedo, ma quello che provo"!

"Il mio scopo in pittura è sempre quello di usare la natura come mezzo, per cercare di fissare sulla tela le mie reazioni più intime di fronte al soggetto, così come mi appare quando lo amo di più: quando il mio interesse e il mio modo di vedere riescono a dare unità alle cose".

"L'opera è l'uomo. Una cosa non spunta dal nulla".

"La gente trova qualcosa nel tuo lavoro, la traduce in parole e poi va avanti per sempre. Del resto, perché non dovrebbe esserci nostalgia nell'arte?".

Edgar Degas | Ballet dancers | Part. 5

Edgar Degas | Ballet dancers | Part. 4

Edgar Degas | Ballet dancers

Among the supreme masterpieces of the century are Degas's pictures of the ballet and its dancers. The impulse towards painting the contemporary scene came to him not only from Gustave Courbet 1819-1877 and Manet 1832-1883 but from his friend, the critic Duranty, the exponent of the aesthetics of naturalism. Yet in the particular direction of his tastes and his conception of design he was entirely individual. To study and convey movement was a chosen task, first undertaken on the race course and then in his many pictures of the Opera, viewed from behind the scenes, in the wings, or from the orchestra stalls during a performance.

Edgar Degas | Ballet dancers | Part. 2

Alphonse Maria Mucha | Master of Art Nouveau

Alphonse Mucha was born in what is now the Czech Republic in 1860 and moved to Paris in 1890 where he became the star of the poster-art movement under the patronage of the Sarah Bernhardt. After World War I he returned to Czechoslovakia and became the father of a slavic arts and crafts movement which combined elements of art nouveau with classic national themes. In addition to commercial art, jewelry design, interior decoration, sculpture and stage design, Mucha experimented with lettering and calligraphy to produce excellent source material for unique typefaces. Mucha's style is virtually synonymous with French Art Nouveau and he is one of the most imitated artists and designers of all time.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir: "It's with my brush that I make love"

"People love to be nice, but you must give them the chance".

"Regularity, order, desire for perfection destroy art. Irregularity is the basis of all art".

"The work of art must seize upon you, wrap you up in itself, carry you away. It is the means by which the artist conveys his passion; it is the current which he puts forth which sweeps you along in his passion".