Joy of Life

So I was goggled Henri Matisse and went to the Art story and found his biography. So I will tell you a little about him and what I have learned. His parents were middle class and their names were Emile-Hippolyte-Henri Matisse & Anna Heloise Gerard. He moved away to Spain and studied law. He later returned as a law clerk and didn't really care for his job . Later he caught Appendicitis and had to stay home for a while, during his time at home is when he discovered isolation and freedom of painting. Later he returned to Paris to study Art, but he didn't pass his exam in till later and then was entered into his program. He created a new style of pure colors and bright lights. Matisse later met Pablo Picasso they became lifelong friends and rivalry representing a possible direction modern art could take after the dealth od Paul Cezanne. Picasso made objects into cubist planes, while Matisse sought to construct an objects' form of color.

"What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity, devoid of troubling or depressing subject-matter, an art which could be for every mental worker, for the businessman as well as the man of letters, for example, a soothing, calming influence on the mind, something like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue."

Matisse used pure colors and the white canvas to create a light-filled atmosphere in his Fauve paintings. He used contrasting areas of pure unmodulated color. These ideas continued to be important to him throughout his career. He was influenced by the art of other cultures like Asian Art, North America, Islamic art, African sculpture and the flatness of the Japanese prints into his own style. The center of Matisse painting and sculptures was the human figure.

"What interests me most is neither still life or landscape, but the human figure. It is that which best permits me to express my so-to-speak religious awe towards life."

'Notes of a Painter', 1908

Matisse later years well first he got a separation from his wife, the arrival of the World War II, and his health all added to his anxiety over the direction of his work. He had a major surgery that after the surgery he was confined to a wheel chair. While he was confined to his wheel chair he turned to drawings and paper cut-out. The paper cut-outs symbolized for Matisse the synthesis of painting and drawings.

"That paper cut-out, the kind of volute acanthus that you see on the wall up there, is a stylized snail. First of all, I drew the snail from nature, holding it between two fingers; drew and drew. I became aware of an unfolding. I formed in my mind a purified sign for a shell. Then I took the scissors."

Conversation with Andre Verdet, 1952