 Matisse The Red Studio c.1911 |
By the turn of the century, many of the younger painters in France had adopted Seurat's "divisionism;" it's formalist, rational/empirical approach seemed perfectly suited to the modern scientific period. It was also a way to escape their traditional academic training, as well as the outdated Impressionist style.
Another group led by Henri Matisse and including Andre Derain drew inspiration from Gauguin and Van Gogh. It was not Gauguin's subjects but his color that pointed to the future... Gauguin believed that color could act like words; that it held an exact counterpart for every emotion, every nuance of feeling.
Color's task was not to describe but to express. By this means, color could claim the liberty of thought itself. For the Fauvist it was enough that color should take its stand on authenticity of feeling: that it should expand and sharpen the artist's and the viewer's sense of energy, their shared "Joy of Life"... FAUVISM.
"Art For Art's Sake" could be used simply as a justification for hedonistic (a belief that the pursuit of pleasure is the chief good/aim in life) aestheticism (from our lecture on art for art's sake, Post Impressionism, Page 1). Hedonistic aestheticism was an anthem to Matisse and stood him in good stead. Long after many of his contemporaries were confined to museums and art history text books (or Art Appreciation, in our case) Matisse's work continues to be, like the Impressionists, popular. If success is really the best revenge then Matisse has certainly had his revenge over his early critics who felt that he and the other Fauves just weren't living up to their social/moral/political responsibility!
In 1941 Matisse almost died from an intestinal blockage and was bedridden for much of the remainder of his life. "My terrible operation," he announced, "has completely rejuvenated and made a philosopher of me!" At an age when most artists are either dead, literally or figuratively, Matisse had reentered the forefront and redefined it. Being bedridden necessitated a change, instead of paint he had his assistants paint sheets of paper with flat, brilliantly hued color which he then cut into with scissors and then pasted them on a flat paper support. Matisse wanted to fix "a sort of hierarchy of all my sensation" to possess and minutely articulate the nuances of feeling -- and for Matisse those were feelings of joy.
  Henri Matisse The Swimming Pool c.1952-53 |
 Henri Matisse, Icarus, plate 8 from Jazz. Paris, E. Teriade, 1947. Pochoir, printed in color, each double page 165/8 x 255/8 in. The Jazz series is composed of individual booksize cut-outs printed in book form to accompany Matisse's own text. Museum of Modern Art, New York |
 Henri Matisse Chapel of the Rosary of the Dominican Nuns, Vence, France. Consecrated June 25, 1951 in which Matisse designed everything from the stained glass windows and altar to the candle stick and chalice. |
 Andre Derain The Turning Road c.1906 |
"...that it should expand and sharpen the artist's and the viewer's sense of energy, their shared "Joy of Life"... FAUVISM.
 Andre Derain London Bridge c. 1906 |
"I saw all the people behind their masks -- smiling, phlegmatic -- composed faces -- I saw through them and there was suffering -- in them all --pale corpses -- who without rest ran around -- along a twisted road -- at the end of which was the grave." Edvard Munch's comment on his painting "Anxiety".
Courbet's Realism had introduced a new social consciousness into the visual arts, while Impressionist color had made artists aware of the potentially expressive power of the medium which was explored by the Post Impressionists (Gauguin and van Gogh and especially the Symbolists such as Edvard Munch) and the Fauves. This combination of social consciousness/content with Post Impressionist/Symbolist form and color would dominate 20th century Expressionism.
Lynn University Art Appreciation
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