Henri Matisse's experiments with form and color revolutionized the twentieth-century art world. In this concise critical biography, Kathryn Brown explores Matisse's long career, beginning with his ...struggles as a student in Paris and culminating in his celebrated use of paper cutouts and stained glass in the last decade of his life. The book challenges various myths about Matisse and offers a fresh perspective on his creativity and legacy. Chapters explore the artist's enthusiasm for fashion and cinema, his travels, personal ties, interest in African art, love of literature, and willingness to challenge audience expectations. Through close readings of Matisse's works, Brown offers new insight into the artist's friendships and battles with dealers, critics, collectors, and fellow artists.
The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian AvantGarde - at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art from February 28 through June 3, 2012 - brings together some 200 works of art to ...demonstrate the significant impact the Steins' patronage had on the artists of their day and the way in which the family disseminated a new standard of taste for modem art. This historic exhibition traces the evolution of the Steins' collections and examines the close relationships that formed between individual members of the family and their artist friends. Opening last year at San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art, the exhibition moved to Paris's Grand Palais before finally arriving in New York. The Steins had close bonds with the emerging artists whose works they collected. The Steins were also natural networkers. They famously introduced Matisse to Picasso and made the art of the Parisian avant-garde available to hundreds of people who might not have had a chance to see it otherwise. The first documented visitors to 27, rue de Fleurus were Leo's artist friends, who often found him pacing the studio or reclining on a daybed whUe extolling the individual merits of the pictures. As word of the Steins' coUections spread, they were overwhelmed with requests for visits. A decision was made to consolidate the visits and open both Leo and Gertrude, Leo's atelier and It is no coincidence that three canvases of ?a Coiffure - by Manguin, Picasso, and Matisse - were painted within a few years of one other. Manguin's version was created first. Sarah and Michael bought it in February 1906. It was one of their earliest purchases of contemporary art in Paris. After a long absence in the United States, Sarah and Michael decided to remodel their apartment. They explained to Matisse that they hoped to add some of his recent work to their main room in order "to make the arrangement just right." They were particularly enthusiastic about his version of La Coiffure, which is clearly modelled on Manguin's painting. The canvases are the same size and offer compelling similarities, from the pose, dress, and hairstyle of the standing woman to the strong vertical division of space in the background. Matisse even plucked the pink flower from Manguin's table and used it to adorn his model's hair.
An article that was first published in 1991 is presented. Henri Matisse wrote eight letters to American painter Walter Pach between 1912 and 1924. The correspondence proved beneficial to Matisse's ...career and to the development of American modernism, as Pach helped bring the aesthetic consciousness of his country into the 20th century. An informal student-teacher relationship developed between Pach and Matisse. The text of the letters is included, and their significance is discussed.