Tate Modern: Matisse’s Cut outs Exhibition

Henri Matisse certainly knew how to use colour combinations effectively. The way he describes shapes with minimal style led me to come away from this exhibition clutching a swathe of postcards depicting this artist’s work. That, together with a feeling that my senses had been highly stimulated, made this a memorable exhibition.

We visited Tate Modern back in 2014 to see this. I remember enjoying it. But I now feel mystified when having just read the suggestion on the Tate website that Matisse was the inventor of a “new medium”.

“In his late sixties, when ill health first prevented Matisse from painting, he began to cut into painted paper with scissors to make drafts for a number of commissions. In time, Matisse chose cut-outs over painting: he had invented a new medium.” (Tate.org 2014)

For the sake of accuracy, did he not just take one that was already very much in existence and dare to lend it credibility by his highly effective adoption of it? It does beg the question, did someone not think of it before then? For how long have we had paper, scissors and paste at our disposal? Surely these were not invented in 1936 when this series of artworks were first produced?

As a creative species, it’s not altogether unrealistic to hint at the possibility of suggesting that the true evolution of that medium came about from an individual or a group of the female persuasion? Thus deemed “unworthy” by those incumbents of the lofty marble halls of the art world, that same group have gone on unnoticed and therefore unmentioned into the annals of time.

Though these “women scorned” may well have been unmoved by ego, disinterested in being “recognised” as artists, or simply figments of my own active imagination, I feel the need to mention the real possibility of their existence regardless.

I feel that the reason that Matisse’s cut outs have so much impact is that his wealth of knowledge around effective colour and tonal contrast, as well as his awareness of the conventions of composition, are so well established from his years of painting experience. His subtle hints at the nuances of the human form keep me highly engaged, both in the quality of the outcome as well as the use of the medium, especially given his physical condition at that time in his life.

Since writing this post I have been sent a link to The Economist “Stick ’em Up” article on “the Surprising History of Collage”. Evidently the world’s moved on since 2014, Doh!

References:

Samuel Reilly (2019) ‘Stick ‘em up! A surprising history of collage’, The Economist, 24 July. Available at: https://www.economist.com/1843/2019/07/24/stick-em-up-a-surprising-history-of-collage (Accessed: 13 January 2021).

Tate (2014) Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs – Exhibition at Tate Modern, Tate. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/henri-matisse-cut-outs (Accessed: 13 January 2021).