SOUTHBANK CENTRE

Matisse: Drawing with Scissors

Late Works 1950 - 1954 


Henri Matisse: Tristesse du Roi (Sorrow of the King), 1952The French painter, sculptor and designer, Henri Matisse (1869-1954) was one of the 20th century's most influential artists. His vibrant works are celebrated for their extraordinary richness and luminosity of colour. Matisse: Drawing with Scissors, features 35 lithographic prints of the famous cut-outs, produced in the last four years of his life, when the artist was confined to his bed, and includes many of his iconic images, such as The Snail and the Blue Nudes.

Matisse continued creating highly original works well into his eighties. For his cut-outs he used paper that had been hand-painted with gouache, laid down in abstract or figurative patterns: 'the paper cut-out allows me to draw in the colour... Instead of drawing the outline and putting the colour inside it... I draw straight into the colour'. The colours he used were so strong that he was advised by his doctor to wear dark glasses.

Henri Matisse: Nu bleu II (Blue Nude II), 1952The lithographic reproductions in this exhibition are taken from a special double issue of Verve, a review of art and literature, published by Tériade, a major publisher of fine art books in 1958. This exhibition gives a brilliant overview of Matisse's late work, including many of his iconic images, such as The Snail - the original is owned by Tate Collection, and usually on display at Tate Modern - and the Blue Nudes.

Matisse began his working life as a lawyer, before going to Paris to study art in 1890. At first strongly influenced by the Impressionists, he soon created his own style, using brilliant, pure colours, and started making sculptures as well as paintings. In 1905 he and his colleagues were branded the Fauves (wild beasts) because of their unconventional use of colour, and it was during this time that he painted his celebrated Luxe, Calme et Volupté (Luxury, Tranquillity and Delight). 'There is no gap between my earlier pictures and my cut-outs', Matisse wrote; 'I have only reached a form reduced to the essential through greater absoluteness and greater abstraction'.


Tour Details

 

10 January - 8 February 2009
Arts Centre, Pontardawe

14 February - 14 March 2009
Museum and Art Gallery, Swindon

25 April - 24 May 2009
Museum and Art Gallery, Doncaster

30 May - 28 June 2009
Highland Council, Inverness

4 July - 6 September 2009
Scotland Street School Museum, Glasgow

12 September - 11 October 2009
Oriel Mwldan, Cardigan

17 October - 15 November
Borough Museum, Newcastle-under-Lyme

21 November 2009 - 3 January 2010
Radnorshire Museum, Llandrindod Wells

9 January - 7 February 2010
Dean Close School, Cheltenham

20 March - 18 April 2010
Stranraer Museum

24 April - 27 June 2010
The Garman Ryan Exhibition Space, New Art Gallery, Walsall

3 July - 1 August 2010
Galway Arts Festival

7 August - 5 September 2010
Highland Council, Inverness

11 September - 10 October 2010
Thorleybourne Gallery, Bishop's Stortford Museum

20 November 2010 - 2 January 2011
The Space4 Gallery, Peterborough

8 January - 6 February 2011
College of Art and Design, Leeds

12 February - 13 March 2011
Arts Centre, Pocklington

19 March - 17 April 2011
The Hat Factory, Luton

23 April - 31 July 2011
Museum and Art Gallery, Perth

6 August - 4 September 2011
AVAILABLE

10 September - 9 October 2011
AVAILABLE

15 October - 13 November 2011
North London Collegiate School, Edgware

Tour continues

Category C

Image credits:
Top: Henri Matisse: Tristesse du Roi (Sorrow of the King), 1952. Gouache découpé 292 x 386cm. Arts Council Collection © DACS.
Bottom: Henri Matisse: Nu bleu II (Blue Nude II), 1952. Gouache découpée 116,2 x 88,9cm. Arts Council Collection © DACS.

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