Emil Nolde

“I avoid the representation of the real. I want to give the essence of things.”

“I love the music of colours. They are sounds that I can see.”

“My art is <strong class="highlight">Germanstrong>, strong, austere and heartfelt.”

“My home is the narrow strip of land between the seas.”

“Colours are my notes. I must be able to put them down with the same ease as a composer who has mastered the counterpoint.”

“I had to paint. It was a necessity.”

“To a person who has no art in him, colours are colours, tones tones... and that is all.”

“Pictures are spiritual beings. The soul of the painter lives in them.”

“What I always wanted was to paint not a picture, but to paint. The picture is an end-product. The painting is a process.”

“The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul.”

“Yellow can express happiness and then again, pain. There is flame red, blood red and rose red. There is silver blue, sky blue and thunder blue.”

“There is silver blue, sky blue and thunder blue. Every colour holds within it a soul, which makes me happy or repels me, and which acts as a stimulus.”