Author Description

In 1930 when Matisse, just past his sixtieth birthday, traveled to the United States, he was at a low point in his career. But the opportunity to see his work in the Barnes Foundation (then located just outside Philadelphia) among many other seminal works of modern art, and a commission from Albert C. Barnes to execute a monumental painted decoration for the foundation's main gallery, marked a turning point. Two new working methods shifted the nature of Matisse's work in the decade to come. The use of pre-colored cut papers to lay out and rework his compositions launched Matisse toward a style of flat tones and bold shapes and colors. And the use of the camera to record the stages of in-process compositions became just one of several serial practices that signaled Matisse's increasing concern with a complex, multiform concept of artistic creation over the single, definitive work. Matisse's art changed across the board. The decade saw new developments in his easel painting and mural painting, sculpture, printmaking, drawing, and the illustrated book. The Parisian art journal Cahiers d'art, a publication renowned for the abundance and quality of its art reproductions, took a major role in publicizing Matisse's work during this period. The story of that journal's relationship with Matisse, who took great care with the dissemination of information about his work, is crucial for understanding how public perceptions of the artist were formed in the 1930s. This publication will be the first to highlight the 1930s as a pivotal decade in Matisse's artistic development.