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Tania Tiplady
How was Matisse influenced in achieving to be both an artist and decorative artist?
In this essay, I will be discussing how Henri Matisse achieved to be one of the most
influential and innovative artists of the 20th century through his immense use of vibrant
colors and was defined as both an artist and a decorative artist. I will research and go in
depth of comparing and resembling similarities of what is considered fine art and
decorative art, what makes the two so distinguished. This will also allow me to explore
more about how Matisse was able to successfully tackle his career by adopting a neutral
stand of what Jane Steinberg has already stated through her argument. Throughout his
career, he was constantly battling critics and remarks for being overly decorative
whether it was his intentions or not due to his execution of color and shape.
Henri Matisse (1869-‐1954) was a French artist and a great
initiator of the modern art movement. Raised in a small industrial
town called Le Cateau-‐Cambrésis, he was regarded as one of the 3
artists, along side Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp that was
responsible for significant developments in painting and sculpture.
With hopes of becoming a lawyer, he initially went to Paris to
study law, working as a court administrator but soon abandoned
his job and discovered his appeal for art in his early twenty’s.
Matisse was a phenomenon of his time, as he strived to set new benchmarks for
excellence, challenging to establish norms and achieve prominence through color. He
was a vanguard during the early twentieth century, where he led the way of promoting
and developing ideas. Although he was one of the main leaders of Fauvism, that was
formed by a loose group of young French artists that aroused critics due to their daring
progressiveness. The movement did not continue beyond an extensive period or his
expectations, it remained existent, as they were referred to as the masters of color and
important to him where he infused the ideas into his works. Acquiring the experience
from his fauve works he continued to approach his other pieces with the same elements
and the decline of the movement did not impact his career immensely. Nevertheless,
Matisse infused decorative motifs into purely compositional works and ushered a new
Tania Tiplady
approach to art. At first glance, Matisse’s works has seemingly child like qualities and
has an effortless looking appearance. There is resemblance of traditional European
painting, even with his simplistic imagery yet has always veered between abstract and
realistic styles. He lacked that cultivating upper class, but he attended the prestigious
École des Beaux-‐Arts in Paris for only two years as he felt the artistic differences with
the teachers were becoming too extensive and was not optimistic about how he was
taught. He was extremely generous in color, often applying quite rich brush strokes that
gave off heavy texture and never went the conventional way to paint. He did not mix
with white or black, as he wanted the colors to be as pure and organic as possible.
He painted a lot of human figures in a decorative element; he was very fond of women.
Firstly, how do we even begin to define Fine art? It is somewhat freely defined as work
that embodies much experience, ability and skills to tackle a technique in a beautiful
manner that is often extremely on the costly side. Inevitably, art is subjective and will
always be a complex topic, as it is difficult to consider other perspectives because our
own perspective is the easiest to rely on. To some extent, anything could be considered
art, but Fine art had that expectation of a certain depth. He was very passionate about
his art, and wanted to translate his happiness through intense color. He had intensions
for every detail as it wasn’t just simply because it looked appealing.
On the other hand, decorative art is generally created to have no other function besides
being seen. It is a commodity in the markets, hence why raising the value increases the
prestige and luxury of the item. Thus why nowadays, the more aesthetically pleasing it is
the more people are attracted to buy it for its beauty. There is no meaningful motive
behind this, and if often reproduced to be sold in large quantities, deriving it’s quality.
Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) had a huge influence on Matisse, though there is no
statement to evident this is accurate, the two shared common friends and there are
obvious resemblance seen in both their works. Gauguin’s works were done mainly in the
Polynesian islands and Tahiti, where he painted native women relaxing on the beach or
nature, using bright colors, such as “When will you marry” (1892), which was his first
piece he painted with his arrival in Tahiti.
Tania Tiplady
In 1905, Matisse painted Le Bonheur de Vivre (The joy of
life), showcases hints of Gauguin’s style as the piece
speculates a hidden meaning for a mythological world,
specifically Arcadia that refers to a Greek pastoralism and
harmony with nature. The piece emphasizes how beautiful
this paradise of a world is, with the subjects of naked women
lounging on the grass, dancers, lovers, and pipe players with the scenic mountains in the
background. It seems like everyone is displaying a different aspect of joy in life. The
characteristics and color combinations of Matisse and Gauguin is clearly visible, a
decade later.
Despite the fact that Matisse undoubtedly marked a turning point in history of modern
art, he was no child prodigy like Pablo Picasso, as he developed an interest for art at the
age of 21 but gradually devoted his time in color, light and space to create the perfect
harmonious pieces. He had a pictorial perspective; he mixed art and decorative art
together thus why it is evident that he was both an artist and a decorative artist.
How Matisse was both fine art and decorate art, as Jane states “the two coincide in
Matisse’s works” as he made more than just paintings itself. He in cooperated a lot of
pattern, which would refer back to design, for generations his family had been involved
with a textiles industry in Northern France, hence where the influence came from as
well as collecting pieces of fabric for personal liking over the years and had a big impact
on his art. His first exhibition ‘Fabric of dreams’ established his fascination with textiles,
displaying a range of paintings and drawings alongside his personal collection of fabrics
over the years. The way Matisse could integrate color was similar to the process of
manufacturing printed fabrics, there was a sense of an innate decorative which attracted
critics throughout his career hence the uncertainty of what sort of art he was.
From my source, she states that in the Blue Nude series it is apparent
that the differing edges and marks of Matisse’s hand on some of the cut
outs make it more artistic whilst others seem purely decorative. The
Museum of Modern Art claims that the “cut-‐outs culminated in highly original series of
Tania Tiplady
works made of paper continued his reputation with Picasso as one of the major artists of
the 20th century”, this clearly shows their relationship and how they influenced each
other but emerged and approached in opposite ways. Pablo Picasso (1881-‐1973) a
Spanish painter usually worked form his imagination and focused primarily on one idea.
Unlike Matisse where he promoted the sense of purity and equality, Picasso leaned more
towards paroxysm of inner aggression.
It is considered art because of his marks that makes it one of a kind, however it too is
decorative as it looses its effect when presents as a poster that can be
reproduced. During the 1940’s, Matisse concentrated on art and decoration,
specifically cut outs due to having stomach cancer, which confined him in a
wheelchair restricting him from painting on an easel. Where he then focused
on cut outs using scissors, choosing it over painting but considered it as
painting with scissors and became one of his major exhibitions that later on
were used to create designs. It was nothing new to him, as he was a
descendant of generations of weavers linking back to his affiliation with
textiles where he would often use pins and cut fabric.
The cut out’s was his final phase of his artistic
venture and his culmination to success,
showcasing over 100 cut outs and body of
works. The current exhibition, which is held in
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New
York is a good chance for the public to savor the
remains of the cut outs that reflects his commitment with color, alongside his other
masterpieces of drawings, stained glass and paintings. In 1948, he was commissioned to
create all the wall decorations for the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence, including the
stained glass windows, altar clothes, and furniture, which crowned the achievement of
his career. Especially since the public noticed this monument, acknowledging the
ground breaking art he produced during his 5 decades. However, the debate still ligers
whether he was more than just an artist, but fact still remains he crated some
outstanding’s pieces and with a new medium, leaving a vivid glory.
Tania Tiplady
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Matisse
http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection/highlights/highlight106384.html
http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/63904/steinberg_jane_2009
.pdf?sequence=1
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/mati/hd_mati.htm
https://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1469
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/gaug/hd_gaug.htm
http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2005/matisse-‐textiles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Picasso
http://www.tate.org.uk/context-‐comment/blogs/two-‐masters-‐one-‐friendship-‐story-‐ma
tisse-‐and-‐picasso
http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2014/matisse/