On Modern Art

A work of art has a material form and a hidden spirit, and the secret lies in joining matter and spirit without the one overwhelming the other or hiding it entirely...

The aim of art is not the imitation of nature with "mechanical" exactness; the aim is the pleasure of the eye and the stirring of feeling. But when the artist tries to cast off natural lines and colors so as to lose himself in abstraction (l'abstrait), he sacrifices many of art's possibilities — he makes them limited, makes art poor, and empties it of its most important powers... And what meaning is left to lines and colors if they do not show, for instance, the beauty of the body's features and the shapes and colors of flowers??