Henri Matisse is one of the leading figures of modern art. His unparalleled cut-outs are among the most significant of any artist's late works. When ill health first prevented Matisse from painting, he began to cut into painted paper with scissors as his primary technique to make maquettes for a number of commissions, from books and stained glass window designs to tapestries and ceramics. Taking the form of a 'studio diary', the catalogue re-examines the cut-outs in terms of the methods and materials that Matisse used, and looks at the tensions in the works between finish and process; and drawings and colour.
This catalogue devoted to Matisse's late work--a period he described as his 'second life'--sheds exceptional new light on the artist through his correspondence with the writer André Rouveyre. Beginning with Matisse's serious operation in 1941 and ending with his death in 1954, these last years saw an extraordinary blossoming of his art. His correspondence with André Rouveyre--a novelist and artist dreaded for his cruel portraits, who was also Matisse's old friend from their student days at Gustave Moreau's studio--testifies almost daily to this autumn triumph. The voluminous written exchange (nearly 1,200 letters, many of which are covered with drawings or decorations by the artist), with its wealth of fertile observation, offers a unique look at Matisse's creative process and aspirations during a period when he was redefining his modes of artistic expression. For the first time, this catalogue, like the exhibition it accompanies, relates a selection of these letters and their drawings to works produced during the same years: oils on canvas, drawings, illustrated books along with their studies, tapestries, stained-glass window maquettes, preparatory studies for the wall decorations of the chapel at Vence and a number of dazzling large and small paper cut outs, representing the culmination of a half-century's work and Matisse's radical creative renewal.--Book jacket.
Part biographical vignette, part activity guide, this book explores Matisse's life and the circumstances that led to his paper cutouts. Readers then get a step-by-step guide to creating their own Matisse-style collages. Full color.
When Henri Matisse (1869-1954) was forced to give up painting completely in the mid-1940s due to a serious illness, he began to work with painted paper and a pair of scissors, cutting out forms at will. These works represented a revolution in modern art. Matisse - a remarkable man who was scarcely able to leave his bed and already considered lost to the world of painting - had thus found a way of outsmarting fate and creating a perfect synthesis of colour and line. Many critics at the time were unstinting in their cruel remarks about the supposed foolishness of an old man. Today, no one would deny that Matisse had found a brilliant means of uniting line and colour that constituted a highpoint in his artistic ambitions.--
Step into the colorful world of Henri Matisse and his magnificent paper cutouts in this biography by acclaimed picture book creator Jeanette Winter. In a small weaving town in France, a young boy named Henri-Emile Matisse drew pictures everywhere, and when he grew up, he moved to Paris and became a famous artist who created paintings that were adored around the world. But late in life a serious illness confined him to a wheelchair, and amazingly, it was from there that he created among his most beloved works—enormous and breathtaking paper cutouts. Based on the life of Henri Matisse, this moving and inspirational picture book biography includes a note from the author, dynamic quotes from Matisse himself, and an illuminating look at a little-known part of a great artist’s creative process.
One day, Henri Matisse (1869-1954) cut a small bird out of a piece of white paper. It was a simple shape, but he liked the way it looked and didn't want to throw it away, so he pinned it to the wall of his room. But the bird looked lonely all by itself, so he cut out more shapes to join it, and before he knew it, he had transformed his walls into larger-than-life gardens filled with brightly coloured plants and animals and shapes of all sizes. Featuring colourful cut-paper illustrations and Matisse's own cut-outs, Matisse's Garden is the inspiring story of how the artist's never-ending curiosity and continuous process of trying new things helped turn a small experiment into a radical new form of art. Children will see how Matisse used nothing but paper and scissors to create simple shapes like squares, leaves and birds, and experimented with scraps of leftover paper and new colour combinations to create lush gardens on his studio walls.
Keesia and Henri Matisse have the same birthday—New Year’s Eve! That’s why she picks him for her artist report. She finds out that over his long career Matisse made paintings, sculpture, books, costumes, and her favorite—his cut-outs, or what Matisse called “drawing with scissors.” The report is filled with about 20 of Matisse’s masterpieces as well as artwork that Keesia has created in his “style” (cut-out leaves, drawings through windows, fauvist animals). As she follows Matisse through his life she discovers why he is considered one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century.
