Maurice de Vlaminck

"remain an individual if he had to conform with senseless orders and old foolish things without being asked his opinion on them."

"I wanted to burn down the 'École de Beaux Arts' with my cobalts and vermilions and I wanted to express my feelings with my brushes without troubling what painting was like before me.. .Life and me, me…"

"directly tube against canvas, one soon becomes too slick.. .I regretfully realized that my composition was reduced to no more than a series of coloured rhythms, harmonious, discordant, monotonous and …"

"..translated by instinct, without any method, not merely an artistic truth but above all a human one."

"It was only in the evenings that I played the violin . During the day I was free to spend my time as I wished. With a few colours in a box, a canvas and a cheap easel under my arm, I would make my way…"

"For me, the discovery of the outside-world, dates from my acquisition of a bicycle . I spent whole days on the high-roads. I rode through villages, towns and the country-side. I tasted dust; rain pour…"

"The war gave me a certainty of belief. I grew aware of the bankruptcy of theories, of the theories of intellectuals as well as artists. L'art pour l'art and other grave problems no longer gave me a he…"

"My father was a violinist, my mother a pianist. I was born into a world of music.. .The practicing of my father's pupils accompanied every thought and action of my childish life.. ..Then when I was th…"