Matisse

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HENRI MATISSE
by Jean Selz
If the name, Matisse, sfiines with particular brilliance today, it is because his art stands apart from all the movements and schools that make up the history of painting in the twentieth century. Stubbornly in revolt against pat theories and detesting mere shows of technical skill, he achieved a production in which his originality is unceasingly reaffirmed. Half a century separates his canvases of the Fauve period from his last paintings, filled with a harmony and joyousness which bear witness to the extraordinary youthfulness of his vision; but each of his styles can be considered one of the great accomplishments of contemporary painting. More than any other great painter of his time, he used colour boldly and violently, in order to express his idealized conception of the world, wliich he depicted as a place of the happiest intensity. But... Tovább

Fülszöveg

_.'il -I'.,.!
¦ m' i"': I, ' v
ll' "I I ' ¦ ' '' • I
I" -'.I ll l'i,"' > '
r. ' i' i
[,. l- l l." -i. 1 t
HENRI MATISSE
by Jean Selz
If the name, Matisse, sfiines with particular brilliance today, it is because his art stands apart from all the movements and schools that make up the history of painting in the twentieth century. Stubbornly in revolt against pat theories and detesting mere shows of technical skill, he achieved a production in which his originality is unceasingly reaffirmed. Half a century separates his canvases of the Fauve period from his last paintings, filled with a harmony and joyousness which bear witness to the extraordinary youthfulness of his vision; but each of his styles can be considered one of the great accomplishments of contemporary painting. More than any other great painter of his time, he used colour boldly and violently, in order to express his idealized conception of the world, wliich he depicted as a place of the happiest intensity. But even his most revolutionary techniques are tempered by a sure sense of taste and a keen feeling for balance; and he tried more and more to achieve in his art a synthesis of form, always severe, but in which grace is never neglected.
In leading us through Matisse's works — so rich and diverse — Jean Selz analyzes their technical and aesthetic aspects and illuminates the artist's personality in all of those areas (drawings, lithographs, decorative works, cut-outs and sculpture), in which — as in his paintings — he demonstrated his creative spirit. In addition, the reproductions chosen permit the reader to follow, step by step, the evolution of a dazzling talent.
53 colour reproductions: oils, gouaches, and cut-and-pasted watercolours
23 drawings, lithographs and engravings in black and red chalk and blue watercolour
Picture on the Front Cover:
Interior With Blue Portfolio, 1945 (Detail) (18" X 14") Private collection
Picture on the Back Cover:
The Sadness of the King, 1952 (Detail) Cut-and-pasted gouache 116" X 154" National Museum of Modern Art, Paris Vissza