"From a bottle Cézanne makes a cylinder, whereas I begin with a cylinder to create an individual item of a particular type; from a cylinder I make a bottle, a particular bottle. Cézanne tends toward architecture, I, on the other hand, begin with it. That is why I compose with abstract elements (colors) and arrange the objective elements only when the colors have become objects. I compose e.g. with a white and a black and come only to arrangement if this white has become a paper and that black a shadow. With this I want to say: I arrange the white in such a way as to let it become a paper. This painting relates to past painting as poetry does to prose."

—Juan Gris, in the journal, L'Esprit Nouveau, in February, 1921.


"The constructive spirit is as necessary for the creation of a picture or a poem as it is for the building of a bridge."

—Amédée Ozenfant & Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, the editors of L'Esprit Nouveau (Paris, 1920-1925, 29 issues).

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