Excerpts below from "To Paint is to Love Again" by Henry Miller, 12 Feburary 1960, Big Sur, California
"I know, of course, that to evoke a true feeling of color, to capture the vibrant essence, one should lay one color next to the other in contrasting manner. For me the master in this domain is Jean Varda, who long ago abandoned brush and canvas in order to make collages.

To enter a gallery in which Varda's collages are exhibited is an event in one's life.

"One no longer thinks of colors but of color istelf, the wonder and the miracle of it. No painter, however riotous his palette, can ever obtain the results which Varda does by putting togehter pieces of paper, cloth, or whatever material he chooses to use. (The only painter who comes close to rivaling Varda in this respect is Abraham Rattner. Not Rouault, not Matisse, not Soutine.)

Varda has devoted his life, one might say, to the study and manipulation of color. With all his strength, his wil, his courage, he as fought against - muddiness.

"For Varda, Satan is pure black. The lesser devils ar the browns and grays.

"His god, I am tempted to say, is gold. It is a gold which becomes more gold than gold by reason of the surrounding greens and biolets. It is not Byzantine gold, though Varda is certainly Byzantine if he is anything. No, it is the gold of the alchemist, a product of the most subtle powers of transmutation. In short, metaphysical, symbolic, heraldic.

"I must add that to listen to Varda talk color is as great a thrill as to look at his collages. He begins where the textbooks left off. And he never finishes. He merely interrupts himself to talk about something else." 1