"In "Ma Jolie,"... the most concrete information about the woman comes largely through the two words "MA JOLIE," which refer to the refrain from a popular song. ...It is commonly said that a picture is worth a thousand words. But in this picture two words are reveal more than the entire image. ...In its hesitation at the limits of abstraction, the painting casts doubt on the whole enterprise of visual representation."
January 1, 1970
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Matisse_and_Picasso