Henri Matisse
Jazz

Color-Thirsty Beasts ("Donatello Among the Wild Beasts" 1905, Louis Vauxcelles)

There have been very few movements in human history, across all fields, artistic, social, cultural, etc., whose duration was inversely proportional to their influence and importance as the "Fauves": in just under 3 years (1905-1907) of existence, ending with the collapse of the "project" due to the lack of an organic artistic program, Matisse, Vlaminck, and Derain, to name the most important, had many proponents. They managed to lay the groundwork for a first serious questioning of Impressionism, even though they shared many aspects such as the depiction of light, thus marking a first boundary between Modern and Contemporary Art and laying the foundations on which Expressionism built its "fortunes." Technical foundations, mainly, because conceptually Fauvism lacked the "existential" and social anxiety on which Expressionism, especially the German kind, thrived.

Excessive in their choice of colors and minimal in reducing forms and perspectives to the essential, the "fauves" fed on immediate visions of subjects rather than naturalistic representations of them, focusing not on meaning but on the explosiveness of outward appearance. This disorder was a true time bomb destined to shake, breaking it apart, the movement itself but also to trigger the "orderly," a term which, I remind you, is not in contradiction with "avant-garde," and in many ways antithetical reaction, which propelled the almost contemporary Cubism to the glories of the '10s and '20s: Interestingly, it seems that the term "Cubism" was coined by Matisse himself.

A Sensitive Animal "What I have always dreamed of is an art of balance, purity, and serenity, without anything troubling or disturbing..." 1920s, Henry Matisse)

Concerning Matisse's biography, I prefer, for reasons of space, to refer to the link I will attach to the review. Instead, it is more interesting to understand how the visual excess of the "fauves" was a true declaration of love for the positive aspects of nature and life: this "philosophy" would accompany the French painter even after the end of the Fauvism experience, both in his mature age when he dedicated himself to finding a "natural answer" and contrary, although fascinated by it, to Cubism and in the twilight of his life when he explored new exotic and sensual sensations: Until his death (at almost 85 years old), Matisse worked, though as we will see in conditions of disability, joyfully, serenely, and fascinated by the potential of color, light, nature, and life. 

Gouaches Découpés ("Painting with Scissors" 1940s, Henry Matisse)

In the last years of his life, Matisse was afflicted by many health problems that, also due to old age, forced him between bed and wheelchair, but his tireless curiosity and desire for new things led him to experiment with a new way of "painting" or rather of making art: with cutouts of paper in intense and bright colors, he created collages (gouaches découpés) that depicted compositions of an abstract nature. Using scissors allowed him to tire less with palette and brush but to achieve results once again surprising for their positivity and sense of purity and balance, even with the use of colors often contrasting with each other. A hundred of these compositions, even though Matisse preferred the term "drawing with color," ended up, in printed version obviously, the originals are scattered in various museums and private collections, in "Jazz" a book, published in a limited edition in 1947. 

The inspirations for "Jazz" came from circus performers, theater, music, mythology and confirmed the inexhaustible creativity, also confirmed by the personal notes attached to the images, of the master: some like "Icarus" or "Sword Swallower" have become true icons of both "high culture" and "low culture." Obviously, the original versions of the limited edition are nowhere to be found because they are likely "disassembled," but if any of you have about eighty euros to spend in specialized bookstores or even on the Internet, you can find "reprints" if not faithful in the edition at least comprehensive of the compositions.