Product Description
Focusing on Henri Matisse, this is one of an illustrated series which provides accounts of the lives of individual artists, professional and personal anecdotes, and concise definitions of cultural and social movements that shaped their work. Matisse, the son of a grain merchant, trained as a lawyer, but while recuperating from appendicitis as a young man discovered a passion for painting. The book examines his hallucinatingly colourful interiors, his lounging harem girls and finny goldfish, and his cut-outs and joyous dancing figures. ... Read more

Product Description
Discusses the life of the French painter and makes observations about his work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Beauty of Simplicity
This relatively modest book is nevertheless the single best work to have appeared on Matisse's great cut-outs (with the exception of a 1977 National Gallery of Art catalogue), which he made from 1947-1954.John Elderfield's essay discusses the genesis of the cut-outs, and places them in the context of 20th century art in an elegant manner which is refreshingly free of art-historical jargon.Elderfield's essay is followed by a section of color plates which, for the most part, are superbly designed and arranged.Matisse's delicious eye-candy is allowed to speak for itself.The reader is continually dazzled by the purity of color and simplicity of form, and the chronological arrangement of the plates seems to re-create the genesis of the works as they evolved in the artist's mind.However, the single problem I have with this otherwise nearly perfect book is that a number of the plates are far too small, particularly the illustration of the "Large Decoration With ! Masks," which reduces a 30-foot cut-out to the size of a postage stamp, neatly destroying any ability to imagine the beauty of the original work.Also, the color reproduction could be better - the plates, except in one particular print run I have come across, have an odd, bleached or washed-out look that lessens the impact of Matisse's colors.Nevertheless, I still recommend the book for its excellent design and writing.It is a marvelous introduction to the aesthetics behind some of the most simple yet beautiful works of 20th century art. ... Read more

Product Description
Henri Matisse's adventures in color and light constitute a landmark in the history of modern art.From his apprenticeship in the studio of Gustave Moreau to the paper cutouts of the 1950's, the stages of his journey represent a triumph of artistic research and resolution.More than 300 reproductions grace this volume.The text provides a fascination survey of a complex life that crossed the paths of many legendary figures of the age. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

An exhuberantly colourful introduction
TASCHEN's "Basic Art" series consists of fairly inexpensive, full-colour introductions to dozens of painters running just under 100 pages each. Though these can be rather variable in quality, this installment dedicated to Henri Matisse is great. Matisse was a "Master of Color", as the book's subtitle goes, and his paintings here are in explosively gorgeous reproduction. The paintings appear in chronological order (not always a given with the "Basic Art" series), which allows the reader to understand at a glance Matisse's gradual stylistic evolution.

Volkmar Essers' text is quite informative. He splits Matisse's life and work into five periods, "In Quest of Pure Colour" 1869-1905, "Realism and Decoration" 1906-1916, "The Intimacy of the Nice Period" 1917-1928, "Beyond Spatial Limits" 1930-1940 and "Matisse's Second Life: an Art of Grace" 1941-1954. His comments on the paintings are insightful and never lost in navel-gazing, drawing the reader's eye to perhaps hitherto unnoticed nuances in the works. Extracts from Matisse's writings appear in the margins, so one can additionally read the painter's own feelings about his work.

The "Basic Art" books are meant to be only introductions, and thus their coverage is a bit superficial. I could complain that the canvases of Matisse's last period are given fairly little space here, but hey, the book has got me hooked on Matisse's painting and I'm going to move on to a more expansive look at his art anyway.

Concise Matisse
I had recently visited the chapel that Matisse designed for a convent in Vence, France (near Nice.)When I got home I couldn't find a book about it, so I ordered this brief look at Matisse and his art.It does have some of the chapel but it is mainly a valuable and very concise overview of his life and work, with some good pictures.

Beautiful.
One looks at the works of Matisse and wonders why there is no Noble Prize in Art.He would have been so deserving.The works printed in this book are dazzling in their colors, shapes, lines and proportions.His work will be viewed for many, many years as the masterpieces of a tremendously creative man.

Cursory text, fabulous illustrations.
the problem with series that attempt to impose an accessible beginners' format on art and artists is that these things rarely conform to method.the Taschen introductions to great artists are all 96 pages long, dividing the artist's life into significant chronological chapters, following strict biography, and using key paintings to illustrate various points made.this is fine in practice, we've all got to start somewhere, and the series is noted for its refusal to talk down to the reader, its clarity of interpretation, and the bounteous range of miraculously mounted, full-colour reproductions, not just of paintings, but line drawings, lithographs, sketches, studies, woodcuts etc.

The obvious difficulty is not that artists are transcendent and wayward figures who won't fit into a neat grid, but that some artists lived to be considerably older than others.the first book in this series I read was Anna Meseure's 'Auguste Macke', the study of a painter who died when he was only 27.Meseure was able to elaborate each development in Macke's work in detail, and to give a proper treatment of biographical background and its influence on the art, if only on the level of subject matter.

Macke, however, remains a marginal figure.henri Matisse is one of the towering geniuses of 20th century culture.He lived, and painted masterpieces, until he was 85; his life spanned two cataclysmic World Wars, a riot of social and political changes, and almost every aesthetic revolution worth talking about in the last 150 years.given the same amount of space to discuss Matisse as Meseure had with a painter a third his age, Essers' study can't help being a cursory skim, with few revelatory anecdotes (we only learn in the chronology about Matisse's pilgrimmage to the aging Renoir; his theatre designs for Stravinsky; or the visit of Aragon to his sickbed during World War Two - such episodes are surely as important as some given prominence in the book), or, worse, few intimations of the blinding raptures that must have seized Matisse at each new artistic discovery and breakthrough.We learn very little about his relation to his cultural milieu, his tacit rivalry with Picasso, or his overall importance in the history of art; discussion of the work is apolitically formalist.Uncomfortable questions - the obsessiveness of his early year despite his family's poverty; his apoliticism during World War Two - are skimmed over.

None of this really matters.Matisse's work travels surprisingly well in reproduction, especially the later works involving cut-outs, simplified forms and bold colours.the colours throughout are done full bright justice to, so dazzling in fact that reading this book for more than an hour gave me a headache.The rich mix of classics ('Woman with the Hat', 'La Dance', 'Jazz') with the revelatory, less well-known (including spare, geometric, near-abstract views of Notre Dame during World War One) allow us to write our own story of this shamanic artist, whose patrician, Freudian mien concealed the colours and curves of a blazing and boundless inner life. ... Read more

Product Description
This version of Matisse's cut-out masterpiece Jazz is an exquisite and dazzling suite of color plates and text that, like the music it was named for, was invented in a spirit of improvisation and spontaneity.A form filtered to the essentials," the eighty-year old master of modern art called the cut-paper technique. He began experimenting with the medium after an illness impaired his ability to paint, and it was cut paper that gave him a new sense of artistic freedom. Matisse's compositions are accompanied by reflective handwritten thoughts that offer informal advice to artists and students, as well as by an introduction from Riva Castleman, former director of the Department of Prints and Illustrated Books at The Museum of Modern Art. Full color illustrations throughout ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Great Book
Henri Matisse's collage cut-out works are my favorite of his, and this book is a treat for anyone who enjoy's his work. Though I cannot read French, the accompanying text is translated at the beginning of the book. However the writing being in a different language does not detract for me, as I feel that the loopy text and the dynamic images go well together.

Tiny!
Just a warning that this edition of Jazz is quite small.It's about the size of a large post card.In addition, the shape of the book- just like the picture, duhh- forces most of the images inside to be even tinier.A cute book, but definitely not a great way to enjoy Matisse's fine work.

A Top Candidate as the Finest 20th Century Art Book!
Many artists run out of steam before their life ends.Their final work either wanders off in unpromising directions or maunders in repetition of themes already better explored earlier.

Matisse was a happy exception.His work continued to be refined and improved.Jazz is arguably his best work and one of the few affordable ways for each of us to view outstanding art in the format for which it was designed.

Where most illustrated books (including other books illustrated by Matisse) accompany a text by a poet or an author, Jazz is based on a text by Matisse.The text, however, is there to create a visual context for the cut-outs.Matisse employed a delightful calligraphy in his own hand to capture his thoughts about how to be an artist.Many artists are very poorly equipped to explain their own work and approaches to creating that work. Matisse once again proves himself to be a giant by producing a text that's as delightful as the brilliant images.

The text is, of course, in French, but a simple English translation precedes the displayed material.

Riva Castleman opens the book with a fine history of the work inception and execution.

Beyond there, you will delight in familiar images.Many of the plates from this book have become cultural icons such as Icarus, Clown, Circus, Horse and Heart.You will doubtless also find new favorites among the various Lagoons and circus-themed cut-outs.

What, you ask, is a cut-out?Matisse was too ill to get out of bed to paint.Instead, he took brightly color paper and cut out images that resemble what a precocious child might do.Then, these images were carefully pinned over other colored sheets on a wall and equally carefully moved in response to Matisse's directions by his patient assistant.

The work captures a freeness, freshness and frolicsome nature that will make you feel young again.They are a remarkable accomplishment for any artist.They present an unbelievable achievement by someone literally warming their death bed.

Even if you don't like modern art, you'll like Jazz.Get the beat!

Possibly the most beautiful book of the 20th Century
Like the style of music for which it is named, Henri Matisse's "Jazz" moves in unexpected rhythms.His first major project in the unique cut-out medium, the book was originally published in a very limited edition.This 1985 edition brings a true work of art to a mass public."Jazz" is a book all book lovers should own, because it forces you to become more aware of the sheer visual pleasure provided by reading.Matisse's calligraphic text can be appreciated for its beauty by those who do not read French (a translation of the text is provided at the front of the edition), and its cool black-and-white austerity rests the eye from the dazzle provided by the amazing plates.Matisse's colors are so bright they burn themselves onto your retina!Do not resist them, for they will transport you into a world where pure forms float in a limitless space, a world simultaneously serene and vivid. ... Read more

Product Description
An indispensable work of reference about this lodestar of modern art...

The extraordinary significance of the painter and sculptor Henri Matisse in the history of modern art, but also his influence, was no less decisive than that of his main rival, PabloPicasso. In fact, Matisse’s stylistic liberation actually goes one step further in the pursuit of his own personal goal — the perfect synthesis of line and color — by which he sought revolutionary approaches to the great tradition of French painting by drawing upon its classical aspects. For those who wish to know more about this lodestar of modern art and follow the adventurous path of his creative career, this publication is surely the most comprehensive and informative source available. Lavishly illustrated, its authoritative commentaries trace the artist’s search for balance, purityand serenity, from the chromatic brilliance of his Fauve period, through his travels, the Orient, geometric synthesis (it was he who introduced Picasso to African art by givinghim his first mask), and the odalisques to the final triumph when, at the age of eighty, he invented his gouache cut-outs that culminated in his illustrations for Jazz and allowed him to achieve his goal of sculpting in paint just as a sculptor works in stone. Matisse is widely acknowledged as an artist whose canvases are extremely difficult to reproduce in print. With this in mind, each work presented here has been painstakingly compared with the respective original, in close collaboration with the artist’s grandson, Claude Duthuit. The bard of color deserves no less. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Matisse
Pretty good book.I used it for an essay at school and it provided some valuable information and was my primary source.I thought it was a little quote heavy, as half the book is quotes from Matisse or art critics.Some are valuable, but others are just useless fluff.For example, in the begining there is a page long paragraph devoted to why everyone called Matisse a "doctor" and a hedonist or something.It bears no significance to what Matisse did.

I also wish that the book would have talked more extensively about his impact and effects on art.The book says some but the information isn't really centralized and its sort of here and there throughout the book.I wish there would have been a couple pages at the end or something about it.

Otherwise there is a lot of pictures and they're all real good quality.Also had pretty good analysis of some of his paintings, like their meanings and compositional elements that make it great etc... It also covers his entire life, before Fauvism to paper collages.I recommend it.

A good book with accurate color
This is a wonderful book. The color seems very accurate. There are many artbooks with inaccurate color reproduced.I compared several photos in this book with the real Matisse's paintings, the color is all accurate. ... Read more

Product Description
THIS EDITION IS INTENDED FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. Presents the life and work of Henri Matisse in the form of a child's school report. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Great Book!
This is such a wonderfull little book!I highly reccomend it for your kids, and art class, or just yourself!:)

Not really great
I think it was cute for parents of the child, but not really worth purchasing, I expectsd a graft project book. Waste of money.

Excellent concept, well executed
An amusing introduction to the artist Matisse that I highly recommend.Written as though it's an 8-yr-old's school report, it is accessible and very informative.It includes reproductions of Matisse art and biographical information.Loved it.And it was useful as a teaching tool.

Disappointed in Matisse Drawing with Scissors
Cute, but not as substantial as I would have liked. ... Read more

Product Description
A perfect facsimile of Jazz, a 20th century masterpiece



This two-volume edition includes a perfect facsimile of Matisse's seminal cut-out work: Jazz. At last, readers can experience Jazz as if holding the 1947 original.



The reputation of Henri Matisse (1869 1954) as the most important artist of the modern era is rivaled only by Picasso who himself said, All things considered, there is only Matisse. Towards the end of his monumental career as a painter, sculptor, and lithographer, an elderly, sickly Matisse was unable to stand and use a paintbrush. So at almost 80 years of age, he developed a new technique: he drew shapes on colored paper, cut them out and pasted them together. These gouaches decoupees (gouache cut-outs) represented a revolution in modern art, yet their simplicity was dismissed by many critics as the folly of a senile old man. Later critics realized that Matisse had found a brilliant solution to the age-old conflict between line and color one that would profoundly influence generations of artists to come.



Printed in exactly the same colors, using paper and inks similar to the 1947 edition, the facsimile volume allows readers to experience Jazz in its original, unbound form.

* Printed in 18 colors on a small offset press, 4 pages at a time, to obtain the highest fidelity to the original

* Printed on Old Mill in 190 g/m² from Italian paper mill Fedrigoni. This paper is of archival quality and has a felt-like softness, much like handmade paper

* As with the original, this reprint is unbound and folded in signatures of 4 pages. It is protected by a French folded jacket and a hard-backed cover



The second volume provides a thorough historical context to Matisse's cut-outs, tracing their genesis in his 1930 trip to Tahiti, through to his final years in Nice. Also included are other pivotal works from his later career, including his contributions to Verve magazine and his exquisite decoration of the Vence Chapel. Includes rare and historic photographs by Matisse taken in Tahiti, as well as photos of Matisse by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Brassai, and the filmmaker Murnau. The text is supplemented by quotations from Matisse, Picasso, E. Teriade (the publisher of Jazz and Verve), the poets Louis Aragon, Henri Michaux, and Pierre Reverdy, and Matisse s son-in-law, Georges Duthuit. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

matisse - cut-outs
This is a glorious book on a glorious artist. If you want to know about Matisse you'll need a lot of space on your bookshelf, but for his cut-outs these two volumes will do. They cover this aspect of Matisse's art completely and satisfactorily. The reprint of Jazz is done in a way M would have approved: large size (you could show each print individually framed on the wall), bright colours, the appropriate paper. And the other volume will lead you into the amazing paper world that M created in his last years. If you take the time to read the text you will end up an expert on the subject. Jaap Ferwerda

Bright!
This is what we all did as a little kid. Cutting out little figures with scissors (stay between the lines!!!) and glueing them on another paper. But Henri Matisse brings this to other dimensions: enormous "paintings" with the most intense colours. We thought that indeed the brightness of the colours is the most tremendous and special "asset" of this book. No need to go to France to visit the Matisse-museum; open this book and you're already there!

Superb, hefty volumes about Matisse cutouts
This set is hefty, heavy, expensive and superbly printed. The "Jazz" volume consists of unbound leaves which include the cutouts and Matisse's hand writing in French. This section would need to be examined in a flat surface. The cutouts are justly renowned and are lyrical, musical, intensely colorful and a joy to behold.

I found the second, more substantial, volume more interesting. As in "Jazz", it vividly reproduces Matisse's cutouts on high quality paper and in spectacular color. There are a number of fold outs of the art works.There are many high quality documentary photographs (a number by the artist), of Matisse on his Tahitian travels and at work in France. Despite the age of some of the photos, they are in very realistic color.

There are a quantity of interesting articles concerning Matisse's cutout oeuvre as well as a translation of the writing in "Jazz". This is a grand publication; Taschen needs to be applauded for the exceptional standard of its printing. Despite its seeming expense, I regard the present Amazon price as representing fair value.

Gouache Genius
Wheelchair-bound for the significant portion of his days, Henri Matisse, the "wild beast" of color and leader of Les Fauves, in his seventies and eighties, had largely stopped painting. Though this is not to say that he was not creating art; in fact, it was one of his most prolific and controversial periods of productivity. Instead of painting, Matisse was cutting out pieces of colored paper and gluing the cut-outs together to create deceptively simple collages of pure form and color. He referred to this as "painting with scissors," and named the technique "gouaches découpés."

Though the technique was akin to the type of art that school-children create, it was nonetheless important or controversial. His work of the time (which was on a very large scale, more often than not wall-sized collages) was oft met with harsh criticism or complete dismissal of any artistic merit, being taken as nothing more than the last putterings of an aging artist. Though, there were those who could still see the great Matisse sense of style come through in the works, and in 1947, at nearly 80 years old, he published a compendium of prints of his paper cut-outs, along with his thoughts concerning them, called "Jazz."

Taschen's //Henri Matisse: Cut-Outs - Drawing With Scissors// by Gilles Néret, Xavier-Gilles Néret, and Henri Matisse is a big and beautiful double-hardcover collection of Matisse's paper cut-outs. The red book, //Cut-Outs//, is a documentation of the history surrounding this period of creation by Matisse. It reveals the back-story in depth and detail, and offers insight into Matisse's life and though process from an outside, and analytical perspective.The blue book, //Jazz//, is a facsimile of Matisse's original, and highly original, publication of the same name. It is the finest representation of //Jazz// that there is, save for having access to an actual copy from Matisse's print-run.

//Cut-Outs// documents Matisse's later life, beginning with his travel to Tahiti, going through his variety of medical troubles, and fading out with analysis of and thoughts on, both by Matisse himself, and not, his work. Peppered throughout are prints, including centerfolds, of his paper cut-out work in all of its diversity. There are also intimate photographs of Matisse living and working, the most powerful of which show him in his home surrounded by his favorite artwork, offering a glimpse into what he drew his inspiration from.

//Jazz// opens up to be an unbound folder with unbound pages, paying homage to the format of the original. Though the touch is nice in a manner that stays true to the artist and author of //Jazz//, it can make the book rather cumbersome to handle, even when taking it out of the slip case the first time, and, thus, a bit more taxing to read, seeing as one has to make an effort to do something about the order and organization of the pages. However, this becomes less than a minor annoyance, especially when the possible ideas behind it become more apparent. Jazz, the musical genre, is spontaneous and free, and the art in //Jazz//, the cut-outs, share obvious earmarks of those traits, and, therefore, it makes sense that the pages are not bound in a particular order, to be viewed in only one way. Rather, the content of //Jazz// is left to be arranged, or not, in a manner that is pleasing to the viewer, much like the strips of paper that Matisse created his Cut-Outs from were arranged, making the book itself an intrinsic extension of Matisse's art, as opposed to a binding that simply contains it. //Jazz// is a paper cut-out just as much as the gouaches découpés within. The content of the pages of //Jazz// consists of prints of some of the best of Matisse's cut-outs, as well as his hand-written thoughts and doodles concerning them. And, while, in the cut-outs, it is apparent that his technical skill, the level of craftsmanship, and dexterity had degraded in his late age, it is also still clear that he had a masterful eye and mind for composition, form, and color. The technicality, the craft, takes a back seat to the creativity, the art, and the art has not degraded in the least, and has in fact only expanded, progressed, and continued to manifest. Matisse's creativity obviously stayed with him, and sprang from him, until death.

// Henri Matisse: Cut-Outs - Drawing With Scissors// is an inspirational and ever-relevant volume about an inspirational and ever-relevant artist.

Reviewed by Jordan Dacayanan

Love Matisse? Buy this RIGHT AWAY!
This is spectacular! Matisse JAZZ is an exacting replica that aims to reproduce the feeling of holding an original 1948 printing of his last great body of work. As an old man, Henri Matisse was too arthritic to hold paint brushes but could still push scissors through paper and indicate to his assistants where they should be glued down. This folio is such a close reproduction as to show the texture of the construction paper that he cut up,the subtle pencil marks he made, the variations of intensity in color from the gouache on paper. Even if you know this series well from other books, you'll be delighted with the immediacy of holding these.
The commentary, in his own hand, looks like the ink had just dried on the paper. The (reproductions of the original) Lithographs are NOT STITCHED or stapled but folded into a folio and are ready for framing. The book Matisse CUT-OUTS replicates the six monographs that were published during Matisse's lifetime about his work with paper. There are many photographs, sharply and clearly reproduced. This is a handsome volume that will bring many years of great enjoyment.
I've never insisted that anyone looking at my books wash their hands before handling them. This is and exception because it is exceptional- a true heirloom edition of a great body of work. Buy it while you can. ... Read more

Product Description
Henri Matisse (1869-1954) is without doubt the most important twentieth-century French artist, and one of the great colorists of art history. His work utterly refutes the cliche that the great discoveries of Modernism were attained by a heroic and violent abandonment of the past: he was firmly grounded in tradition (albeit in a much less restless and ironic approach than Picasso's). In the 1920s, Matisse's odalisques responded to European fantasies of "Oriental splendor"; during the 1930s, more classical themes of nymphs, fauns and the dance were treated in the splendid and sober Barnes murals, illustrations to Mallarme and James Joyce. Permanently confined to a wheelchair from 1941 (when cancer was diagnosed), he developed his most spiritually uplifting work for the interior design of the Dominican Chapel of the Rosary at Vence, concurrent with his famous paper cut-outs ("cutting directly into color"). Sarah Wilson of the Courtauld Institute provides an introduction to Poligrafa's primer on this Modernist giant. ... Read more

Product Description
Henri Matisse: Drawings with Scissors Masterpieces from the Late YearsOlivier Berggruen and Max Hollein

Now in an attractively priced flexi-cover edition, this lavishly illustrated volume presents all aspects of Matisse's cutouts.

Henri Matisse’s paintings and drawings are some of the most revered in the art world and his cutouts are widely believed to represent the zenith of his artistic career. When Jazz, Matisse’s revolutionary handmade book of paper cutouts, was published in the early 1940s, it was considered a dramatic departure for the artist. Eventually he came to consider the cutout as his primary artistic medium. This collection of superb reproductions and critical essays offers a chance to appreciate the full spectrum of Matisse's work, from the early models for Jazz to the large-scale works that dominated the artist's final creative period, and offers fascinating new discoveries about the connections between the cutouts and his earliest works.

Max Hollein is Director of the Schirn Kunsthalle Museum in Frankfurt, Germany.

Olivier Berggruen is an art historian, who lives in New York. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A compilation of learned essays on the work of the great artist after age-related illness
Compiled and co-edited by art historians Oliver Berggruen and Max Hollein, Henri Matisse: Drawing With Scissors, Masterpieces From The Late Years is a compilation of learned essays on the work of the great artist after age-related illness, which confining him either to his bed or a wheel chair, would no longer permit him to paint, so Mattise took up cutting out colored paper patterns and having his assistants mount them in special patterns under his guidance (often from his wheel chair). The profusely illustrated essays include "Jazz: Rhythm and Meaning (Margret Stuffmann); "Painting with Scissors: Jazz and Verve" (Michael Anthonioz); "Drafts for Publications and Maquettes" (Ingrid Pfeiffer); "Decoration beyond Decoration" (Remi Labrusse); "Resonance and Depth in Matisse's Paper Cut-Outs" (Olivier Berggruen); "The Windows in the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence" (Ingrid Pfeiffer); "Philodenros" (Hannes Bohringer); and "Painting alone remains full of adventure - Matisse's Cut-Outs as an Inspiration for Nicolas de Stael, Ellsworth Kelly and Andy Warhol" (Gunda Luyken). A superb guide, Henri Matisse is very strongly recommended addition to personal and academic library Art History reference collections is enhanced with the inclusion of an informative foreword by Max Hollein and Olivier Berggruen, an extensive biography of Mattise, a list of illustrated works, and a selected bibliography for further study.

A Great Book Worthy of Its Subject
Originally published in an expensive hardcover edition as a catalogue to a European exhibition of the same name, Prestel has wisely chosen to republish this important book in a smaller, softbound and attractively priced format.This is an unexpected boon to lovers of Henri Matisse's art, as "Drawing With Scissors" is the most important publication on Matisse's famous last works - the paper cut-outs or gouaches decoupees - to appear in many years, and effectively supercedes John Elderfield's "The Cut-Outs of Henri Matisse" as the best introduction to these famous works.The authors are a noted group of European art historians, and each of the essays here explore different aspects of the making, meaning, and interpretation of these unique objects, from the cut-outs as Matisse's final attempt to unite color and drawing to the cut-outs as revolutionary works which explode the traditional opposition between "high art" and "decoration" in Western history.Although visually simple to the extreme and coloristically exuberant, these last works were the product of many years of searching and investigation into the nature of reality and the creative process, and the authors do justice to the unexpected intellectual heft behind the gorgeous appearance of the cut-outs.Physically, this small book is gorgeous - the layout and design equal the hardcover edition and the quality of the color reproductions is stunning.A must-have for any serious art library. ... Read more

Product Description
No other subject inspired Henri Matisse with such passion throughout his career as the female figure in interior settings. This is the most comprehensive publication to cover the topic of women in the work of the great regenerator of European painting, and in so doing, it covers the full spectrum of Matisseís creative evolution, from the small, somber, early pictures to the masterly compositions of his Fauvist phase, the intimate pictorial inventions of the Nice period, and finally the luminous paper cutouts of his late work. Many of the interiors show women reading, sleeping or daydreaming, passive figures enveloped in Oriental fabrics, costumed as odalisques or reclining on chaise longues. Additional motifs include the artist and his model, the artistís studio, the portrait, the still-life, and the view from a window.Figure Color Space offers an in-depth survey of this important subject in Matisseís work, through which he developed and continually explored his rich and imaginative repertoire of forms and colors. Along with paintings from all periods, it includes sculptures, drawings, cutouts and prints, as well as historical studio photographs by Cartier-Bresson, Brassao, HÈlÈne Adant and others. A richly illustrated biography completes this exquisite presentation. ... Read more

Product Description
“If my story were ever to be written down truthfully from start to finish, it would amaze everyone,” wrote Henri Matisse.It is hard to believe today that Matisse, whose exhibitions draw huge crowds worldwide, was once almost universally reviled and ridiculed. His response was neither to protest nor to retreat; he simply pushed on from one innovation to the next, and left the world to draw its own conclusions.Unfortunately, these were generally false and often damaging. Throughout his life and afterward people fantasized about his models and circulated baseless fabrications about his private life.

Fifty years after his death, Matisse the Master (the second half of the biography that began with the acclaimed The Unknown Matisse) shows us the painter as he saw himself. With unprecedented and unrestricted access to his voluminous family correspondence, and other new material in private archives, Hilary Spurling documents a lifetime of desperation and self-doubt exacerbated by Matisse’s attempts to counteract the violence and disruption of the twentieth century in paintings that now seem effortlessly serene, radiant, and stable.
Here for the first time is the truth about Matisse’s models, especially two Russians: his pupil Olga Meerson and the extraordinary Lydia Delectorskaya, who became his studio manager, secretary, and companion in the last two decades of his life.
But every woman who played an important part in Matisse’s life was remarkable in her own right, not least his beloved daughter Marguerite, whose honesty and courage surmounted all ordeals, including interrogation and torture by the Gestapo in the Second World War.

If you have ever wondered how anyone with such a tame public image as Matisse could have painted such rich, powerful, mysteriously moving pictures, let alone produced the radical cut-paper and stained-glass inventions of his last years, here is the answer.They were made by the real Matisse, whose true story has been written down at last from start to finish by his first biographer, Hilary Spurling.


From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Art as Obsession: The Master Behind the Masterpieces
In the second volume of her unmatched biography of Matisse, Spurling completes the archetypal story of The Artist. As clearly as one could desire, she portrays a man to whom everyone and everything in life was subordinated to Work. It is a vivid picture of how subservience to an inner urge, a personality-dominant characteristic, can allow a man, in desperate need of family, friends,colleagues, art-community support and recognition, can turn these into instruments of achievement, as measured by what they mean for accomplishment of his own objectives. It is likely that many of us would deny respect to the businessman, the politician, the journalist, who acted in such manner, but the Artist (at least, not when personally related to us ) is generally respected for his commitment. In Matisse's case, Spurling shows how he did care for others, do his best to advance them in their personal and professional lives, but, at rock bottom, was prepared to sacrifice their interests, their well-being, to his gift. I used the word obsessed because their is every evidence that Matisse, as was Picasso, the other recognized Giant of his era in French Art, could no help himself.
Aside from this fascinating aspects of his life, Spurling explores, better than has been done previously, his relationship to the major figures and many of the minor ones, in his life. She also explores the life circumstances from which emerged the various notable patterns in his work, in particular, she details the deteriorating health situation from which came some of the most striking visual imagery of the twentieth century.
There is much else to be found in this second volume of a set prerequisite to understanding the life and work of Matisse. Certainly, this book is among the "must reads" for any amateur (or professional) student of Modern Art.

Astonishing
As with the other reviewers, I was captivated by this book, and its predecessor.It now can stand beside John Richardson's monumental Picasso (still unfinished).Perhaps the most astonishing thing is the women who formed his total long-suffering support group.My only disappointment with the book is that one is desperate to find out about the afterlives of his wife, Olga Meerson, and Lydia Delectorskaya.(Sequel?)

Of course the other problem is that one comes away still not knowing what Matisse thought he was up to.He is still a complete mystery: what was it that drove him so much, and kept him in such agony?What was he looking for in his art?Everything he says about it is hardly helpful.

Very Well Written Biography
I read both of the biographies written by Spurling on Matisse.I felt that the first one, The Unknown Matisse, was the weakest of the two (but still very much worth reading).Some photo captions were confusing and this first book could have been edited down a bit.We really don't need to know about realtatives of realtives, etc.The second book, Matisse the Master, is excellent.Both seem to be well documented and reader-friendly (without the mystique and jargin that you sometimes find in these books, especially if written by pompus art historians or academic types).The plates of Matisse's works are good but there really should have been a second set of plates in the second book.Major pieces were discussed with no photographs, leaving the reader to seek out images from other sources.Both books together offer a Matisse biography that gives an intersting, thorough, and balanced presentation of the artist, his personal demons, the historical context, family members and their interactions, Matisse's creative understandings and struggles, his interaction with other artists and historical figure, etc.If you like Matisse's work, the two books are well worth the modest price and investment in time to absorb 800 pages of material!

An Artist's Artist
Matisse is considered by many to be one of the most prominent artists of the 20th century, with Picasso being the other. Cezanne, of course, was the spiritual father of them both. The problem with Matisse was that he was so devoted to his art that it was almost as a mistress to him, to the detriment of his marriage and family and nearly all other relationships.

Matisse went his own artistic way and did exactly what he wanted regardless of what his family or the public thought. He was sometimes considered a Fauvist (colors reigning supreme) and sometimes an abstractionist, but never realistic and traditional. His art was seen during his lifetime as shameless, unrealistic, existentialistic, and simple in a child-like way, erotic, lewd, and many other things. People are less shocked by it today since it is seen in the context of anything-goes late 20th century and early 21st century work; his so-called sexy odalisques, for example, are mild by today's standards. He was seen as a decorative light-weight in comparison to Picasso, who did more energetic and masculine work. Helen Spurling thinks the disappearance of so much of Matisse's work from the public eye diminishes his true status as a great artist; some of his work went to Russia via his Russian patron and was retained there unseen because of the Cold War. Picasso and Matisse, by the way, became close friends towards the end of his life. He was almost like an elder brother to Picasso and in a certain sense they had an exclusive club based on their art which no one else could understand.

I've always liked Matisse and have seen the great Cone Collection of his works at the Baltimore Museum many times. I confess not totally understanding what he was trying to do in simplifying the shapes and colors and flattening the depth of so many of his works. I'm starting to see that he was an artist's artist, unconcerned whether the public understands him or not.I guess that's OK, but he suffered severe criticism most of his life because of it. He was almost admirable, like a monk totally disciplined for his god, Art. The women in his life made his life as an artist possible. His wife Amelie and daughter Margo took care of all the details outside of his work and a Russian model named Lydia did so towards the end of his life. Unfortunately, Amelie thought (incorrectly per the book) that Margo and Henri were lovers and that broke up the marriage after WWII.

Hilary Spurling does a good job of condensing and making sense of the massive correspondence of Matisse and his family. My only complaint is that it could have been more condensed. It felt a little too much like a daily log in certain places. I'm sure she was trying to finally give the master his due.

More than history of art
Superb!Not only one of the best biographies I've read, it get's into the mind of the artist.This is not an easy thing to do.I read it as I would a novel, it was very hard to put down. ... Read more

Product Description
In 1936, French publisher Christian Zervos released a collection of drawings by Henri Matisse as part of his Cahiers d'Art series. Along with 39 stunning Matisse drawings, the book included a preface by Zervos and a poem by Tristan Tzara dedicated to the artist. The drawings, mostly of women—nudes, portraits, interior scenes—express an extraordinary sensuality.

This reprint, a facsimile edition faithful to the original, features translations by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and scholar Richard Howard. The beauty of Matisse's simple drawings, as powerful today as in 1936, remains accessible to art lovers and a general audience alike. 39 full-page facsimile reproductions. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

magic lines
marvellous to study how Matisse creates a complete mood and pesonality with a few carefully (or perhaps quickly) drawn clear lines.Total magic.

Real Women
How does a man create, on paper, with a few simple pencil strokes, a whole human being? The women in this collection are erotically beautiful creatures, to be sure, but they are more than that. They are people, individuals, women one could know. Extraordinary! ... Read more

Product Description
"...to devote my life to the essential thing-- the thing for which I am made and which can bring a little happiness to the great family, the greatest spiritual family."--Matisse to André Rouveyre, September 4, 1942

Of all the artists of this century, Henri Matisse is one of the greatest and most beloved. His influence on modern art, both during his lifetime and today, has never stopped growing; in the eyes of the world, he is the French painter par excellence.

Henri Matisse is all the more cherished because his work celebrates the positive aspects of life, as evidenced by the titles of many of his major paintings: Luxe, Calme et Volupté, La Joie de Vivre, La Danse, Musique, to mention but a few. His explosions and juxtapositions of color and pattern inspire pure delight in the beholder, and his mastery of line, volume, and form are perhaps unequaled in the art of our time. The vitality, energy, and life-enhancing qualities that radiate from his art represent distillation of all that is affirmative in the human condition and are given immortality through that rare and indefinable quality known as genius.

The art of Matisse describes a trajectory leading from realism to abstraction, from darkness to light, from the cold of the north to the heat of the south, a route marked off by such revolutionary innovations as the burst of color found in Fauvism or the invention of his cut-outs. Matisse was still creating at a time in his life when many artists are content to rest on their laurels.

Since its original publication in 1984, this book by Pierre Schneider stands alone as the bible on the art of Matisse. The author spent fourteen years amassing a prodigious amount of information on the artist, and includes his own personal and original views on the work. Including over nine hundred illustrations, this is the most substantial reference of the works of Matisse ever published.

The reader will discover Matisse watercolorist, draftsman, ceramist, and the architect-- and unquestionably one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A landmark
There are some artbooks that can be considered landmarks of the genre and this is one such book. In 1986, Pierre Schneider, a respected French art critic for the French weekly L'Express, published this most important book on the greatest French painter of the XXth century and, in my opinion, it has not been equalled ever since. From the introduction (which is an in-depth study of the 1911 painting "The Conversation") to the last chapter centered on the late cut-outs, we are treated to a genuine firework of brilliant insight and marvelous reproductions. Every major work is analysed thoroughly and Matisse's life is followed with a host of erudite details (such as parallels drawn between Matisse's art and Proust's writings or Mallarmé's poetry)and all this makes this book not only a pleasure for the eye but also a great read.

The Bible On Matisse
I noticed that this is coming back into print in November 2002, so I figured I'd write this review. If you are a fan of Matisse, you should snap up this book. It is an awesome achievement by Mr. Schneider. There is a tremendous amount of biographical data here, as well as a wealth of reproductions- both color and black and white. One caveat, though. This is definitely not for the casual reader! There is a lot of detailed analysis of the paintings included- such things as Matisse's theories on the use of color and shape; the tremendous amount of work and thought that went into each work in order to create color harmony and a balance of all the pictorial elements, etc. Mr. Schneider respects the reader, so some of this stuff can be a real challenge! But I found it very worthwhile! Matisse's paintings are deceptive, at least to the layperson. They seem soothing and simple. Well, I can promise you that after reading this wonderful book you may still find the paintings soothing, but when you realize what went into the process of creating them you will never again think of them as being simple! This is one of those rare books that opens your eyes and makes you look at something in a completely new way.Reviewer Note: Please be aware that the book I am reviewing is the over 700 page book written by Pierre Schneider, NOT the much shorter book written by Mr. Jacobus and only translated by Mr. Schneider! ... Read more

Product Description
First published in 1947, Henri Matisse's collection of paper cutouts represented a culmination of the artist's striving to combine his love of form and colour. To create Jazz, Matisse carefully arranged twenty cut-outs as compositions. Like the musical genre they celebrate, the works are at once spontaneous and unified, improvisational yet clearly orchestrated. Serving as a complement to these blasts of color are messages, in Matisse's own handwriting, of his ideas and inspirations. The resulting book is one of the twentieth century's most significant works of art. Katrin Wiethege's introductory essay delves into the artist's method of creating the cut-outs in his studio as well as the painstaking process of printing the book itself. Exquisitely made to resemble the color, printing technique, and paper of the first hand-crafted edition of the book, this volume features Matisse'sunforgettable images and words in all their original splendor. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good, but could have been better.
First, the good news. The book itself is beautifully printed. Pages are heavy stock - I've seen flimsier business cards. Color is rich, and only one page had any registration problem that I could see. This is more than just a monograph about the artist, it reproduces a book by the artist (and I'm grateful for the English translation). I have a passion for primary sources -Matisse isn't among my favorite artists, but I'll listen when an undeniable master speaks.

Unfortunately, two major features of the book interfere with my full enjoyment of it. First, the original Jazz interleaved images with text in Matisse's own hand. A little of the hand-written text has been reproduced, but certainly not all of it. The original relationship of text and image has been lost. Second, and related, is that the translation appears in the back of the book. It's only a minor nuisance to flip back and forth between the book's real content and back matter. I had real problems, though, with the fact that the back matter gives the whole of Matisse's text, but the main content does not. The translated part gives no indication of what it provides that the reproduction doesn't, so it was a "Where's Waldo" exercise, trying to resynchronize my reading with viewing of the images. Perhaps economic decisions about printing forced the omissions. I can still wish that different tradeoffs had been used in the choice, or that the book's organization could have compensated better for the losses.

A final point, and a relatively minor one, is that Matisse provided a visual index or table of contents, showing a thumbnail sketch of each work in the book. I was fascinated by Matisse's own view of what mattered in each composition. The way it's reproduced looks a bit like a ransom note, however. Each annotation has been cut out into its own little box and laid out according to the book designer's idea of proper organization. Perhaps there is good reason for this; maybe the thumbnails would have been illegibly small if the page were reproduced to scale. Still, I would have liked to see the original page's organization, even if the reproduction also showed the sketches at readable size.

Despite the book's flaws, it seems to be an adequate presentation of a coherent body of compositions. Warts and all, I looking forward to enjoying the book over and over. ... Read more

Product Description
Featuring one week and one full-page image per spread, this title contains hardcover cloth-bound. ... Read more

Product Description
The Cone sisters, Claribel and Etta, acquired their first Matisse in 1906 and, during the next four decades, went on to form one of the world’s great collections of his art. The Cone Collection not only contains major works from every phase of Matisse’s long career but also reflects the sisters’ special interest in his Nice period, when a new complexity of form and psychology entered the ever intense surface allure of his paintings.

Matisse in the Cone Collection breaks new ground by offering the first scholarly exploration of this exceptional group of works, all donated to the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1950. Doreen Bolger’s Foreword traces the Cone sisters’ early association with Leo and Gertrude Stein, their growing friendship with Matisse, and the building of their collection. An essay by Jack Flam guides readers through the sisters’ collection of Matisse’s art and, simultaneously, charts the artist’s development from his Neo-Impressionist work of the 1890s to his late style of the 1940s, which is marked by the use of cut-paper and an increasingly linear language of form.

The publication of this book will coincide with the reopening of the Cone Wing of the Baltimore Museum of Art after a renovation designed to make the galleries reflect the period in which the art was first made and collected. ... Read more

Product Description
Henri Matisse:The Vence Chapel, The Archive of a Creation

Conversations and Correspondence with
Marie-Alain Couturier and
Louis-Bertrand Rayssiguier

Edited and introduced by
Marcel Billot

Henri Matisse devoted four years of his life to designing the Vence Chapel, his "crowning achievement," as he himself stated on several occasions. Though the circumstances which led to the creation of this unique building are well known--the project originated with Sister Jacques-Marie, who nursed the aging painter back to health after his brush with death in 1942--the story of the Chapel's construction has long remained shrouded in mystery.

Much of the material in this book is drawn from the Couturier Archives. The bulk of the archive consists of the notes of Brother Louis-Bertrand Rayssiguier, the young Dominican monk who drew the plan of the Chapel and worked closely with Matisse on all phases of its building and decorating. From December 1947 to June 1951, Rayssiguier met frequently with the artist and recorded their conversations verbatim. His notes allow the reader to follow day by day the unfolding of one of the supreme masterpieces of religious art in the twentieth century. Even more significantly, they give us a rare glimpse into the artist's private world. They chronicle his disappointments and his moments of elation, his habits and his foibles, his reactions to contemporary developments in the art world, as well as his deepest personal beliefs. Gifted with an unusually keen sense of observation, Rayssiguier shows us Matisse at work as well as Matisse relaxing in the intimacy of his own home.

Completing this invaluable record, the correspondence between Matisse and Father Marie-Alain Couturier, the Dominican priest at the forefront of the post-World War II movement to commission works of religious art from leading modern painters and sculptors, details the creation of the Chapel's most remarkable feature--Matisse's bold stained-glass windows. An expert on stained glass and the chief editor of L'Art sacre, an influential review devoted to religious art around the world, Courutier took care of all the logistical and technical matters relating to these great windows. The numerous letters he and the artist exchanged are in themselves a fascinating exchange on the art and the significance of modern stained glass.

This archive charts a unique journey to the heart of artistic creativity. The compilation of documents published here for the first time in English is abundantly illustrated with sketches by Matisse and photographic records that show the successive stages of the Chapel's completion.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Interesting,not a coffe table book
First, this is not a coffe table book. Though Illustarted, it is NOT a picture book.I mistakenly thought it so.The books dimensions are1.69 x 9.40 x 7.12 ,whic are that of a normal harcover book. That said, this is an interesting volume on the creation of the famous chapel at Vence. Matisse was ill, and a young nurse kept him company though the long bouts of insomnia accompanying his illness. Later, she joined the domincan sisters.Matisse felt a huge debt to this woman-later nun, and a serious of circumstances led to the creation of this magnificent chapel. There was a domincan friar,Fr. M.A Courtier,who after being stranded in the USA during WWII,set about bringing modern art together with the sacred.{he edited a journal called SACred art}. A young architect,Br. L.B. Rayssiguier, was designing a new chapel for the NUNS at Vence, and approached Matisse to ask his advice. The majority of this book is the correspondence between Matisse and Fr Courtier and Brother Rayssiguier. The photos show the chapel in many stages of development{though not nearly enough color photos of the remarkable stained glass windows, nor of the marvelous stations of the cross} Still, it was an interesting read,that 50 years ago, the giants of art were in competition to design great works of religious art,whatever their motives.Along with the Rothko chapel{a comparison drwan in the preface},this stands as a monument to a genius,and the letters bewteen Fr Coutrier and Matisse are filled with anecdotes and observations. The Menil Foundation has done an excellent job in the production of this volume. ... Read more

Product Description
A description of Matisse and his works combines little-known facts--as documented from his notes, letters to friends, press submissions, and interviews--with his vibrant paintings, his crimson-walled studio, and his achievements with color. Original. ... Read more

Product Description
A brief biography of the modern French artist accompanies reproductions and analyses of several of his works. ... Read more