Exhibition Review: Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs

Today we have a review from the wonderful Henri Matisse exhibition from Susan Niner Janes. Check out this wonderful exhibition at the following:

Tate Modern, London, 17 April – 7 September 2014

MoMA, NYC, 14 October – February 9 2015

Matisse: The Snail, 1953. Digital image©Tate Photography. Artwork: © Succession Henri Matisse/DACS 2014.

I love come-backs. If an ageing rock star comes out with a new album that gets passable reviews, I’m there. Well, Henri Matisse, arguably already one of the two greatest artists of the 20th century, had an inspirational second act – perhaps the most notable second act – ever – in the art world. He heroically re-invented his art, and many say, surpassed his previous achievements.

Extreme ill-health prevented Matisse from painting on canvas. As a convalescent, he developed the technique of cutting pieces of painted paper into shapes which could then be assembled into designs. These were originally only meant to be maquettes – tentative design sketches meant as plans for commercial commissions – but the potential of this technique as an end in itself quickly became apparent. (Art was Matisse’s salvation in times of illness. He first came to art when recovering from appendicitis as a young man.)

Matisse’s art was always big on line and colour – but in the cut-outs these are distilled to their pure essence. The shapes and colours dance and interplay. They are vibrant and very wonderful. Big-time.

Henri Matisse (1869- 1964). Photographer: Lydia Delectorskya. © Succession Henri Matisse.

At the Tate Modern exhibition, there’s an amazing short film of Matisse at work on The Cut-Outs in his studio. Watch the master at work! He sits in his chair and fluidly cuts out intricate shapes from paper using ginormous scissors that look like garden shears (when I hand-cut paper shapes, I do it at a snail’s pace, with teeny découpage scissors). Then, like a conductor (he even has a baton), he guides his assistant in the placement of the pattern pieces on the composition on the wall (it is a plan for chausible for use at the Vence Chapel, regarded by Matisse to be his greatest artistic work).

When you see The Cut-Outs for real, there’s a whole new level of appreciation. You can see the little pinholes (and sometimes even the pins) that were used to meticulously position the shapes on the background. And you can see how some shapes were created by superimposing cut-outs in layers – similar to how shapes are created in graphic design programs by welding to make a composite shape (circle + triangle = ice cream cone).

I read in Alistair Sookes’ little Penguin book, Henri Matisse: a Second Life (a good companion to the exhibition – but you’ll have to Google the picture refs) about how Matisse went on an inspirational journey to Polynesia, in the footsteps of Gauguin. There, Matisse was fascinated by tifaifai, “appliqué bedspreads” ( which I think must surely be Hawaiian quilts). You can certainly see this influence in the cut-outs. And, of course, Hawaiian quilt blocks are created by cutting the fabric using paper pattern templates – which are cut-outs themselves.

Large Decoration with Masks 1953. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Artwork: © Succession Henri Matisse/DACS 2014.

The influence of the Hawaiian quilts was not a one-off. Matisse, the master of pattern and colour, was inspired by textiles throughout his long career. (Matisse: His Art and His Textiles, was an exhibition at The Royal Academy in London, in 2005. There, you could see Matisse’s artworks alongside the actual depicted fabrics.) Matisse grew up in a textile-manufacturing hub in the North of France, near Belgium – a centre of the silk-weaving industry. Fabrics and fabric catalogues displayed in shop windows were a familiar sight. And of course, opulent textiles and tile patterns are big players in Matisse’s Algerian paintings. But back to the Cut-Outs…

As you go through the Tate Modern exhibition, you can see how Matisse honed his art. He starts small – and soon graduates to epic scale. And it is sad and touching how the bedridden Matisse used his paper collages to re-create a tropical paradise on the walls of his studio.

I was lucky enough to see a cut-out work of Matisse’s many years ago, at The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC – The Swimming Pool (1952). Cut-outs on all four walls of the room – a total immersive environment. Splash! Enchanting, dynamic. Unforgettable! And I read in Alistair Sooke’s book that The Swimming Pool was created by Matisse when ill health prevented him from going to an actual swimming pool. I see from the MoMA website that The Swimming Pool , the only cut-out intended for an entire room, adorned the walls of Matisse’s dining room in his flat in Nice. The Swimming Pool now belongs to MoMA. After a period of conservation, it will be on display in the NYC Cut-Outs exhibition.

The Parakeet and the Mermaid 1952. Digital image: © Stedelijk. Artwork: © Succession Henri Matisse/DACS 2014.

The Blue Nude room is a very special feature of the Tate Modern Cut-Outs exhibition. Here you will see three of the iconic cut-outs exhibited together. (Did you have a print adorning the wall of a bedsit or a student flat? I did.) It is fascinating to see the Blue nudes in the same space, as Matisse conceived them. Seeing them up close is a revelation. The illusion of total simplicity is hard won – achieved by pasting painstakinly-positioned paper layers on top of each other.

Blue Nude III, spring 1952. Digital image © Centre Pompidou. © Succession Henri Matisse.

The Cut-Outs are an example of avant-garde genius. They look as fresh and vibrant as if they were created yesterday. Matisse: The Cut-Outs is an unmissable exhibition featuring around 130 works. (Note to parents: for a feel-good art exhibition ideal for taking the kids to, Matisse: The Cut-Outs is unsurpassed.)

If you want to explore Matisse’s life-story and work in detail, check out Hilary Spurling’s award-winning books:

Matisse: The Life, by Hilary Spurling (this is an abridged Penguin, which combines the two original bios)

Matisse the Master: a life of Henri Matisse 1909-54, by Hilary Spurling ( Penguin).

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Thanks to the Tate Modern Press Office for providing info and the pics, which are copyright Tate Modern and used with permission.

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Susan Niner Janes is a craft designer, author, and blogger.