Painting Paradise in Blue – Presenting The Henri MATISSE Collection
As a young man, Henri MATISSE described his new-found love of art as “a kind of paradise”. What followed was a lifetime of creative labor, seeking to capture this feeling of balance and bliss in visual form. From groundbreaking masterpieces of Fauvism to the captivating cut-outs of his later years, the artist’s oeuvre has given us some of the most beloved works of modern art, celebrated and reproduced en masse to this day.
In a new (and long overdue) collection of skateboard art editions from the great French master, we celebrate the last decade of his life and the works which encapsulated it all – his relationship to color, his careful construction of lines, the influence of nature and the diverse sources he drew from during his worldly travels.
Cutting in Color
The works in question are, of course, MATISSE’s famous collages. After a major surgery for a benign intestinal tumor, the artist was bedridden and unable to continue with his regular routine of painting and sculpture. The “cut-outs” became his preferred technique, requiring only scissors and gouache-painted paper prepared by a team of assistants. Often focusing on human silhouettes, inspired by his collection of African sculptures and trips to Tahiti, MATISSE would carefully arrange pieces of paper into intricate compositions, miraculously achieving a sense of volume and movement on the flat surface of the page. This is the case of “Blue Nude II”, one of the most recognizable pieces from the eponymous series, available now as a skate art triptych.
The two solo editions are related to elements of Henri MATISSE’s “Jazz” – a book of illustrations which he began creating in 1942. Initially inspired by the iconography of the circus, the publication was ultimately exploring the relationship between art and musical improvisation, featuring themes of folklore, mythology and travels.
The overwhelming use of blue in these works was not accidental. To the artist, it symbolized volume and distance. It was also a remnant of his early Fauvist practice, relying on contrasting colors, bold lines and structure. What may appear as a simplistic final product was, in fact, a painstaking and rigorous journey, seeking to achieve the “art of balance, of purity and serenity.”
Artist Bio
French artist Henri MATISSE (1869-1954) first discovered painting at the age of twenty, when his mother brought him art supplies to occupy a period of convalescence from appendicitis. In his own words, the moment was like unveiling “a sort of paradise regained”. Much to his father’s dismay, he decided to abandon pursuits of a law degree and dedicate the next five decades of his life to capturing this paradise through visual craft.
A major precursor of Fauvism (derived from the French fauve, meaning wild beast), Matisse’s such works first debuted at Parisian salons in 1905. His presumed “wildness” came from a dynamic use of clashing colors, inspired by the bright sunlight of the Southern coast. This bold palette was almost inherent to him as, growing up in Bohain which was famous for its luxury fabrics, the artist’s visual language was already informed by the vivid and intricate textiles of Europe, Africa and the Middle East – an education which he would later continue through his many travels.
In the decade to follow, MATISSE strived to achieve the “art of balance, of purity and serenity”. He experimented with brush strokes, pointillism and tonal harmonies, constantly manipulating the relationship between line and color. What appears to the viewer as effortless simplicity, was in fact a careful labor of constant self-improvement and discovery. It was then that MATISSE produced his more rigorous abstract paintings with flattened and controlled shapes. He proved that his style was far more traditional and bourgeois than initially assumed, bringing to mind a more conservative side of French painting.
The 1920’s marked the beginning of the so-called “Nice period”. MATISSE focused on depicting decorative, sunlit interiors with a whimsical approach to nature, florals and even household pets (the goldfish bowl became a recurring motif). This variety of subjects and continuous exploration led also to an oeuvre of cut-outs, sculptures and drawings, all cementing the artist as a remarkable and visionary influence on modern art, celebrated to this day by major museums, collectors and art lovers of all backgrounds.
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