Henri Matisse (1869–1954). Icarus (from the illustrated book, Jazz, published in 1947 by E. Tériade)

摘要

"…send me a white cane," Henri Matisse exhorted his assistants when he completed the compositions for his illustrated book Jazz. The artist was nearly blinded by working with intense color under the brilliant Mediterranean light of the south of France (1). To protect against glare, he used overstated hues and intense blacks. To overcome incapacitating illness, he invented a new medium, "drawing with scissors." Cutting shapes from prepainted paper, he formed the contour and the internal area of a shape simultaneously, eliminating as he put it, "the eternal conflict between drawing and color" (2). These cutouts, begun as compensation for illness (duodenal cancer) that confined him to a wheelchair, became another creative peak near the end of the artist's life.n