"Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence." -Henri Matisse
Ahh Henri Matisse.. my ALL TIME favorite artist! There is just something about his work that speaks to me. He uses a stupendous variety of color in his work and while his style leans towards modernism he still portrays recognizable imagery with a simplification of line and shape that is simply genius. Though it may seem elementary to some, having done several of my own Matisse studies it's hard not to appreciate his work. Attempting to replicate his style and textures is no easy task. His mark making is so sensitive, each mark being deliberate and individual. Even the pieces that appear monochromatic and flat have exquisitely subtle yet striking color variations and layers of texture.
"It is not enough to place colors, however beautiful, one beside the other; colors must also react on one another. Otherwise, you have cacophony."
Matisse expanded upon work of the early French impressionist and post-impressionist. Having been taught color theory, a key focus of the impressionists, he headed the Fauvism movement which focused on the use of non-representational color leading art into further down the path towards the modernism. He would go into significant amounts of debt to buy art from admired artists like Gauguin, van Gogh, and Cézanne. From their works he gained his greatest inspiration, he said himself, "In modern art, it is undoubtedly to Cézanne that I owe the most."
What do you like about Sir Matisse?
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