17 Apr – 7 Sep – Tate Modern – Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs
Go! Amazing! Profound! You have to book or wait three hours. Interesting to see Matisse’s work limited to cut-outs. (His output is vast, the paintings are to die for.)
Obviously not every cut-out is here but almost everything I’ve seen in reproduction and one I’ve never seen before- there are 2 of them, either will do –“Woman with Amphora” This is my favourite and with it the exhibition seems to come full circle, it just couldn’t be without it.
Almost the last thing there, “The Snail,” a large canvas with stuck on coloured paper squares rotating. There are photographs of Matisse cutting out a small different snail, all in one piece, he cut several, he described how he turned and turned a real snail and practised cutting. Eventually he placed large squares and called it “Snail” it needs the title; without it it would be completely abstract and it would not represent a snail, it would represent only what each separate person decided, it would not communicate. There are always titles, except on one wall of the exhibition the organic plant forms had no titles and I found myself confused and suddenly I was deciding that one black seaweed shape on a blue ground looked like a caribou or moose. I don’t like that so I tried to stick to the world of form and colour and pattern and décor. Then of course I realised why it didn’t work – the forms had once covered a whole wall in Matisse’s studio and since then they have been separated and put into small frames.
Matisse owns colour and he controls creation and lets the accidents that happen live. I go further: it’s as if God is using him. (I don’t believe in God but I think the concept of God is valuable).
Look at this blue nude, look at her right leg, look at the life force. The slightest movement and the beautiful beast would rise and stand.
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