Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs

This is the catalogue of the exhibition organized by New York's Museum of Modern Art, mounted at the Tate Modern in London from April to September 2014 and then at the MoMA from October 2014 until February 2015. The impetus for the exhibition was the major campaign of conservation of Matisse's huge "The Swimming Pool" cut-out, which the artist designed for his dining room in the Hôtel Régina in Nice in 1952; the Museum restored and remounted it and, in this exhibition, presents it once again to the public for the first time in over twenty years--but now, in order to reflect its original environment, it has been newly installed in a room constructed with the original proportions, details, and architecture of Matisse's dining room. This is a very major exhibition, the most extensive presentation of Matisse's cut-outs ever mounted. Although "The Swimming Pool" is its conceptual heart, the show encompasses a much wider range of works, including illustrated books, textiles, stained glass, and related drawings. The explosion of creativity and imagination that Matisse presented as the last act of his artistic life is truly amazing; it is not given to many people to invent an entirely new art form in their seventies, especially not one that vibrates with such youthful exuberance and juice as these cut-outs do. When he exhibited "Zulma" at the Salon de Mai in 1952 (at the tender age of eighty-two), critics referred to it as "the youngest and most innovative work there," and to himself as "the youngest exhibitor" (162), and in looking through this volume, I kept having to remind myself that Matisse was, in fact, really, born in 1869 and already over thirty at the turn of the century. This remarkable body of late work is authoritatively discussed in the catalogue's nine essays, all of which were written by senior curators and conservators at the Tate, the MoMA, or New York's Metropolitan Museum. They are short and concise (about eight or nine pages on average) and generously illustrated by some seventy accompanying reproductions. Topics discussed include how the artist came upon the idea of the cut-out in the beginning; their gradual evolution from simple maquettes in the service of developing works to independent works of art on their own, and Matisse's own growing realization of what they were; their reception by critics and the public at large; the "Dance" mural for the Barnes Foundation and designs for the ballet "Rouge et Noir"; the cut-outs for the "Jazz" book; designs for the Chapel at Vence and the late monumental mural works, etc. These are all thoughtful and informative essays; I was particularly intrigued by Samantha Friedman's "Game and Endgame," which elucidates the compositional permutations of the pieces on the model of the chessboard; and by Nicholas Cullinan's "Chromatic Composition," which examines the intermediate, ambivalent position of the cut-outs between figuration and abstraction (e.g., Matisse gave his 1953 piece "The Snail" the alternative title "Composition Chromatique," much as--in a very different context--Whistler's painting slips between "Portrait of the Artist's Mother" and "Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1"). There is also a fascinating technical examination of the paints, papers, mounting practices, etc. used in creating these works, procedures at least as complicated as those involved in any of the more traditional media. In addition, there is a sixty-page photo essay, "In the Studio," which is not merely the kind of supplementary collection of workshop photos we find in many catalogues, but an essential component in understanding Matisse's creative process: as the compositions became ever larger, the "supports" went from boards to the walls of his rooms, to the extent that, finally, the studio itself became the support. Successive photographs of the studio allow us to follow the stages of various compositions; it is an engaging and challenging exercise for the reader to try to reconstruct the artist's reasons for substituting a leaf cut-out, say, for an amoeba, or trying to see why he finally came down against using any of the various "Blue Nudes" in "The Parakeet and the Mermaid" (1952). A fine touch is that the photographs are annotated with the corresponding catalogue numbers of the works in the exhibition; this greatly facilitates the reader's comparison and use of the book as a self-educational tool. As far as the catalogue is concerned, there are 136 plates of reproductions in excellent color (and, of course, riotous color: Picasso once claimed that only Matisse and Chagall knew what color really is). One very nice feature of the book is that the endpapers reproduce the color charts of the gouache paints produced by the manufacturer Linel, illustrating the great range of them available to Matisse, and of which he liberally availed himself: the technical analysis reveals that he used over fifteen varieties of orange, eight turquoises, and ten greens (255). No wonder the book is a carrousel of color! Most of the plates are printed full-page; for a couple of the longer works there are gatefolds, and "The Swimming Pool" itself has a double gatefold. This is altogether a very delightfully produced volume and unhurried in its design and layout. It has some selected bibliography, a checklist of the exhibited works with the usual curatorial data, and a comprehensive index. There is no dearth of books on Matisse, including on the cut-outs, but this seems to be the most complete and best illustrated one on these magnificent late works, and it's highly recommended for all Matisse aficionados.

Beautiful photos well written and a must have for Matisse fans

I got what I bought, and a little more. The collection presented is extensive, colorful, complete, and there are foldouts that are really impressive. This book was a little out of my normal price range, but I feel like I actually got a little more than what I paid for. I got what was described and presented by Amazon, plus a little more.

I purchased this book as a gift for my artist brother. It is heavy, large, and a perfect coffee table book.

i love the color and size of the book, it’s so perfect for decor!! i was looking for something exactly like this for a little pop of color on my desk and it’s perfect. i wanted to put a lamp on top and i found this one and it tied it all together! super cute!

A glorious book at an affordable price. Anyone interested in Matisse will be informed, dazzled, and delighted. Familiar and many less-familiar works (most of them reproduced in color) grace the pages along with essays by eminent curators, conservators, and directors at major museums. In all, a one-of-a-kind tour of what Matisse called "drawing with scissors"--the mesmerizing cut-outs that span the last decade of his life's work.

Bought a copy of this when I saw the "cut out" exhibit at MOMA. When I came home several of my artist friends were drowling over it so I bought some on Amazon as birthday and Christmas presents. It was WAY cheaper and the same EXACT book. One thing you should know is that ALL the copies of this book seem to have a print defect on the cover…even the one I bought at MOMA…so not be be distressed when you receive it from Amazon and think that somehow it is second rate.

Eveything perfect

It is appropriate to use the world `life-affirming' to describe this catalogue because of the work that it presents and also because it shows an old man, debilitated by surgery, devising a personal atrategy to continue his long-lasting love affair with primary colours. Matisse's development of paper cut-outs, his decoupages, occurred over some 15 years prior to his death, just short of his 85th birthday, in 1954. This catalogue, accompanying an exhibition at Tate Modern and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 2014-15, is beautifully organized. Three illustrated essays serve as Introduction, `The Studio as Site and Subject' by the curators, Karl Buchberg, Nicholas Cullinan, Jodi Hauptman and Nicholas Serota, `Inventing a New Operation' by Hauptman and `A Disagreeable Distraction' by Cullinan, followed by a photoessay `In the Studio'. The central part of the catalogue examines the cut-outs through five complementary illustrated texts, `Avant la letter' and `Game and Endgame', both by Samantha Friedman; `Chapel Factory' by Flavia Frigeri, which considers ceramic panels, mosaics, fabrics and stained glass maquettes; `Bodies and Waves', by Hauptman, and `Chromatic Composition' by Cullinan. The final essay, by Buchberg, Markus Gross and Stephan Lohrengal addressing `Materials and Techniques' is fascinating and represents the first systematic examination of the artist's `cutting into colour', or `painting with scissors', to create small ["The Lyre", 1946] and, eventually, very large works. The catalogue also offers a Selected Bibliography, a List of Exhibited Works and an Index. The colour illustrations, beautifully reproduce some 130 gouache cut-outs, from 1936-54, and include open-out double pages showing "The Swimming Pool", 1952, "The Parakeet and the Mermaid", 1952, and "Large Decoration with Masks", 1953. Two paintings are included, "Red Interior: Still Life on a Bllue Table", 1947, and "Interior with Black Fern", 1948. The reproduction on the front cover is "Blue Nude II", 1952, one of four versions of this motif that are brought together in one room in the exhibition; it beautifully illustrates the importance of the background between the cut-outs. The matte colours of today may not be what Matisse's eyes, protected from their glare by dark glasses, saw due to pigment deterioration. The artist's use of scissors link back to his father's draper's shop. The same is true of the pin attachments that Matisse used to combine individual shapes into more complex forms, a process analogous to pinning a hem, to produce what the artist called `his garden'. The origins of the cut-outs lie in the effort that Matisse made to illustrate a commissioned book, `Jazz', between 1943-46. He arrived at a method for examining differing colours and shapes but then realised that he had created a new medium, part painting, part drawing, part sculpture. The diverse influences include African dancing, Islamic mosaics and jazz, and reference the Fauve decoration in "Harmony in Red", 1908, and "The Painter's Family" and "Red Studio", both 1911. Matisse's assistants would pin individual elements to walls, rearrange them [shown by their many pinholes] according to the artist's instruction. The authors of the final essay point out that until the work was mounted, its individual elements were free to be wafted by the breeze, which would have created a naturalistic movement of leaves and vegetation, or - as in "Oceania, the Sea", 1946, by Mediterranean currents. Many contemporary photographs show this process underway, with assistants clambering up ladders and the artist moving from wheelchair to bed through his failing health. It is wondrous that the works of 1953, including the much-reproduced "The Snail", emerged from such infirmity. The catalogue clearly shows that the paper cut-outs were not a failing artist's attempts to continue working; rather they are fresh, inspiring works resulting from a life-time of experience of colour and line, and a passionately enquiring mind. In 1952, the artist said that `one day, easel paintings will no longer exist'. However, the most interesting feature of these late works is that no subsequent artist has taken Matisse's inspiration further. The catalogue cannot create any sense of the size of the later works ["The Snail", 1953, is almost 3 metres square], although the photoessay and other illustrations showing Matisse's studio/bedroom in Boulevard Montparnasse, Paris [1946], Villa le Rêve, Vence 1943-48] and Hôtel Régina, Cimiez, [1949-54], give an impression of what the exhibition delivers. As is frequently the case, some works are only shown at one site. The exhibition is co-sponsored by Hanjin Shipping, Korea's largest shipping company, who were shrewd in supporting what is sure to be one of the great exhibitions of the early 21st-century.

The book is beautifully printed, with colours and shapes that delight the eye and invite the touch.

I needed this book for Uni. It was damaged on delivery and I didn't want to return it because I needed it.

TODAS COLAGENS DE MATISSE. Ponto.

Absolutamente formidable