Matisse

Fülszöveg

About this book Only a quarter-century after his death, Henri Matisse stands in the company of those great artists whose work has been both a profound inspiration to others and a source of infinite enjoyment to all who love art. This richly iilustrated book draws upon Lawrence Gowing's earlier writings on Matisse, including a study described by Albert Elsen as "one of the finest, most perceptive and inspired essays" on the subject. Adding much material that is new and brilliantly penetrating, Gowing takes usthrough Matisse's career, evaluating at each stage the artist's relationship to tradition and to contemporary art. He assesses Matisse's significance to the art that has followed him and looks closely at Matisse's own achievement. The detailed discussion of individual works reveals the subtlety and complexity of one of the greatest masters of our time. About the author Lawrence Gowing, painter and writer on painting, is Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of London and... Tovább

Fülszöveg

About this book Only a quarter-century after his death, Henri Matisse stands in the company of those great artists whose work has been both a profound inspiration to others and a source of infinite enjoyment to all who love art. This richly iilustrated book draws upon Lawrence Gowing's earlier writings on Matisse, including a study described by Albert Elsen as "one of the finest, most perceptive and inspired essays" on the subject. Adding much material that is new and brilliantly penetrating, Gowing takes usthrough Matisse's career, evaluating at each stage the artist's relationship to tradition and to contemporary art. He assesses Matisse's significance to the art that has followed him and looks closely at Matisse's own achievement. The detailed discussion of individual works reveals the subtlety and complexity of one of the greatest masters of our time. About the author Lawrence Gowing, painter and writer on painting, is Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of London and Director of the Slade School of Fine Art. His many publications include major studies of Vermeer, Renoir, Cézanne, and Constable. From the text "It was not unusual to require from art a so/ace and a refuge. Matisse was unique in the realism with which he recognized the need; the resourcefu/ness with which he pursued it amounted to genius. He demanded of art the expression of an ideál state of being. He did not mere/y require a representation of a perfect wor/d. although he sought that as well in several different forms. His object was not even direct/y sensuous. The senses were continuous/y engaged, but Matisse ha/f mistrusted them: sensua/ gratification was itse/f precarious. In 1929 he conc/uded that 'one may demand from painting a more profound emotion, and one which touches the spirit as well as the senses.' We can see that at roothe was demanding nothing less than the independent, abstract re-creation of idea! conditions of existence -states of visible perfection from which the least possibility of frustration was eliminated " On the cover: Matisse, Seif Portrait, 1906 (Copenhagen Statens Museum tor Kunst, J. Rump Collection) OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS • NEW YORK Vissza