If you are lucky enough to be a London resident, or you 'll be in the capital of England someday until the September 7th, I suggest you do not miss the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see a landmark exhibition.

It 's the Henri Matisse: The Cuts-Outs in Tate London.

As recorded by The Spectator, "A sense of joyous celebration almost unmatched in the history of art. Unmissable!"

Indeed, this impressively-shown modern collection of around 120 treasured from private galleries all over the world manifest the extraordinary character and talent of its brilliant creator French man Henri Matisse. Truly regarded as the father of modern art at the dawn of the 20th century, along with Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp, Matisse defined the revolutionary developments in the plastic arts in the opening decades of the twentieth century, and he is responsible for significant developments in painting and sculpture of french art.

The Sheaf, 1953

Collection University of California, Los Angeles. Hammer Museum
© Succession Henri Matisse / DACS 2013

I know that most people ignore modern art as complex and incomprehensible. I could never blame them for that. However, walking into Matisse’s world of Cut-Outs, one is fascinated by the mastery of the expressive language of colour and drawing in Matisse 's paintings. As he follows the style of fauvisme, he expresses emotion with wild, often dissonant colours, without regard for the subject's natural colours. The cut-outs represent through an arbitrary motif of shape and colour a compositional aspect which combines many modes of relaying information; a collage of string, painted gouache and more, the pieces are thought of and thought out again and again, contradictorily quixotically as well as carefully, suggesting a completeness for their minimalist approach.

Notre-Dame, 1914.

Oil on canvas. 147 x 98 cms.

Kunstmuseum Solothurn, Dübi-Müller-Stiftung, Switzerland.

Even when a composition appears as finished the beauty is that, segments can be taken away or given at will to the figures within, so that, if he were not satisfied fully, their shape could be altered on the fly.

Passing through, one may be reminded of their childhood days, cutting snowflakes into or out of the pure white page as the use of negatives, or negative space, blossoms into a new creative tangent: it often was not just a procedure of cutting shapes out of the paper to stick together, but also of cutting in to the paper, to mould the block of colour by taking away, as one might expect of a sculptor. It is from this that the idea of ‘carving into colour’ had been taken, and shows Matisse’s ability to adapt and realise the alternatives that become present with such a for.

It is also evident Matisse's desire to surround himself with the things that fascinated him, such as marine life, that led to the conception of entirely new and distinct projects which, as before, bloomed from the pages left on his floor. From snowflowers to dancers, circus scenes and a famous snail, the exhibition showcases a dazzling array of 120 works made between 1936 and 1954. Bold, exuberant and often large in scale, the cut-outs have an engaging simplicity coupled with incredible creative sophistication. Admired from a distance, it becomes impossible to know which relies on what or whether what you see encompasses the back or the foreground: the ‘in’ or ‘out’.

So enjoy the vibrant colours together with the the cut-out method, that illustrate perfectly Matisse's radiating energy, when taking to task with his artwork. Firstly watch the video & then take a glance at the artworks.

A feast of dazzling dreams !!

Art video: Henri Matisse: The Cut Outs unveiled by the Tate Modern. The Telegraph Culture.

The Snail 1953
Gouache on paper, cut and pasted on paper mounted to canvas
Tate
Digital image: © Tate Photography

Artwork: © Succession Henri Matisse/DACS 2014

The Horse, the Rider and the Clown 1943-4
Maquette for plate V of the illustrated book Jazz 1947
Digital image: © Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Jean-Claude Planchet
Artwork: © Succession Henri Matisse/DACS 2014


*Blue Nude (I) 1952* Gouache painted paper cut-outs on paper on canvas 106.30 x 78.00cm Foundation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel Digital image: Robert Bayer, Basel Artwork: © Succession Henri Matisse/DACS 2014


Icarus 1946 Maquette for plate VIII of the illustrated book Jazz 1947 Digital image: © Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Jean-Claude Planchet Artwork: © Succession Henri Matisse/DACS 2014


Memory of Oceania 1952-3 Gouache and crayon on cut-and-pasted paper over canvas MoMA Digital image: © 2013. The Museum of Modern Art, New York / Scala Florence Artwork: © Succession Henri Matisse/DACS 2014


Large Decoration with Masks 1953 National Gallery of Art, Washington. Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund 1973.17.1 Digital Image: © National Gallery of Art, Washington Artwork: © Succession Henri Matisse/DACS 2014