Why do people like matisse

Editorial Feature. Henri Matisse is widely regarded as the greatest colorist of the 20th century. The French artist used color as the foundation for his expressive, decorative and large-scale paintings. As a result, he embraced life-affirming subjects, making innovative use of color, line and form to create loose interpretations of light and space.

Though he was known as a draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor, Matisse is most remembered for his paintings. Fauvist paintings used bold, non-naturalistic colors, often applied directly from the tube in loose, spontaneous dabs. The forms of Fauvist subjects were also simplified to their most basic shapes and silhouettes, making their work appear quite abstract.

While many Fauvists left the movement to adopt more conventional styles, Henri Matisse continued to use the distinctive Fauvist traits of bright, emotive colors, simple shapes and painterly mark-making while continuing to seek out new influences by traveling the world. Take, for example, the popular notion that Matisse was hedonistic. Hedonists seek pleasure. Matisse served it, as a monk serves God. He was a self-abnegating Northerner who lived only to work, and did so in chronic anguish, recurrent panic, and amid periodic breakdowns.

Picasso recompensed himself, as he went along, with gratifications of intellectual and erotic play. Matisse did not. His art reserved nothing for himself.

In an age of ideologies, Matisse dodged all ideas except perhaps one: that art is life by other means. He was an unhappy law clerk when, in , he began to study drawing and, while laid up with appendicitis, was given a set of paints by his mother.

The effect was seismic. I threw myself into it like a beast that plunges towards the thing it loves. Her parents were ruined in a spectacular scandal, as the unsuspecting employees of a woman whose financial empire was based on fraud. Silence was essential. Then the dealers were admitted. Matisse was not taught to paint; he just started doing it. His first two canvases, from , are essentially consummate Old Master-ish still-lifes, the first one pretty good and the second, featuring opulent reds, a knockout.

He had style before he had craft, which he picked up along the way by copying paintings in the Louvre and taking classes with, among others, the arch-academician Adolphe-William Bouguereau and the Symbolist Gustave Moreau.

His one art-schooled technical standby, almost a fetish, was the plumb line. How many of us have left a critical piece undone, waiting for the energy, idea or inspiration to finish it just so? Matisse worked regularly and kept a very strict schedule; he woke early, worked for several hours, then had an early supper, almost invariably boiled eggs, salad and wine.

He said he needed the boredom of his routine to allow his creativity to flourish. I hope our visitors will see that the work of this genius is incredibly uplifting and inspiring. It has taken hundreds of people, thousands of hours, and the financial backing of dozens of patrons and corporations to bring Matisse to San Antonio.

We have been undaunted in our mission. Timed tickets are required and are available here. Members see the exhibition for free. The exhibition will be free with admission and free for members.

Katherine C. Luber, Ph. It was only then that he discovered his passion for art and decided to become an artist. Woman Reading La Liseuse , Many of his earliest works mimicked techniques of 17th century Dutch painters.

Dishes and Fruit , It was Moreau who encouraged Matisse and his classmates to develop their own artistic personalities, leading Matisse to experiment with form and color. In London, he studied the works of the Romantic landscape painter J. Turner , who was known for his use of light and color to create atmosphere. Matisse traveled more throughout his life and allowed his experiences to shape his art.

Bathers with a Turtle , Woman with a Hat , Blue Nude , It was purchased by Gertrude and Leo Stein and traveled in exhibitions across the U. Rooms were later leased to tenants, many of whom were artists. Matisse lived and worked there among other prominent writers and artists, including Jean Cocteau, Isadora Duncan, Rainer Maria Rilke, Clara Westhoff, and, of course, Auguste Rodin, who later took over the whole building.