Fauvism1
- 1. FAUVISM 1904-07 Fauvism in context Matisse
- 2. Monet's estate at Giverny is now opened for public visits. It is maintained by the " Claude Monet Foundation " Monet Rouen cathedral, the portal and the St-Romain tower, full sunlight. Blue and gold harmony 1894 Musée d'Orsay Photo of the water-lilies pond at Giverny Monet bequeathed to the State fourteen large paintings of his nymphea, which were placed in 1927, little after his death, in two oval rooms of the Museum of the Orangery in the Tuileries Garden. Photo of Monet's house at Giverny
- 3. Influences- Art of Feeling. Paul Gauguin (1848-1903). After spending a short period with Vincent van Gogh in Arles (1888), Gauguin increasingly abandoned imitative art for expressiveness through colour. Gauguin's art has all the appearance of a flight from civilisation, of a search for new ways of life, more primitive, more real and more sincere.
- 4. Paul Gauguin, Vision after the Sermon (aka) Jacob wrestling with the angel Oil on canvas, 72 x 91cm
- 5. Concerned with inner rather than external truth. He combined stylized images of Breton women dressed in distinctive regional costume, in shallow pictorial space with a 'vision' in the top right corner. The strong diagonal of a tree has been inspired by Japanese prints. Like the Impressionists, Gauguin studied Japanese prints and even adopted their use of bold, flat areas of solid colour. Coupled with a treatment of the figures and landscape in simple shapes and bold outlines, this gives the painting a flat decorative quality. No definable source of light is used –a development which looks forward to Fauvism. Paul Gauguin, Vision after the Sermon
- 6. Japanese Prints The opening of Japan to Western trade and diplomacy in 1854 led to a rage in France for all things Japanese. In particular, Impressionists admired Japanese wood-block prints and applied that art form’s flat, decorative shapes, bright colours, and asymmetrical compositions to their own work. The Impressionist painters and Post-Impressionists like Claude Monet, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin and Van Gogh were influenced by Japanese woodblock prints.
- 7. Gauguin, Paul Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? 1897 Oil on canvas 54 x 147”
- 8. Gauguin—after vowing that he would commit suicide following this painting's completion, something he had previously attempted—indicated that the painting should be read from right to left, with the three major figure groups illustrating the questions posed in the title. The three women with a child represent the beginning of life; the middle group symbolizes the daily existence of young adulthood; and in the final group, according to the artist, "an old woman approaching death appears reconciled and resigned to her thoughts;" at her feet, "a strange white bird...represents the futility of words.“ The blue idol in the background apparently represents what Gauguin described as "the Beyond.“ One of the fundamentals of the Fauves was expressed by Paul Gauguin in 1888: "How do you see these trees? They are yellow. So, put in yellow; this shadow, rather blue, paint it with pure ultramarine; these red leaves? Put in vermilion."
- 9. Influences- Art of Feeling. Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890). A pioneer of what came to be known as Expressionism, Van Gogh has had an enormous influence on 20th century art, especially in the early part of the century, when many paintings of the Fauves and German Expressionists, particularly Die Brücke are highly derivative. His energetic approach to the painted surface follows a lineage to the Abstract Expressionism of Willem De Kooning and beyond.
- 10. Vincent van Gogh. The Starry Night . 1889. Oil on canvas, 73 x 92 cm.
- 11. Between 1901 and 1906, several comprehensive exhibitions were held in Paris, making the work of Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, and Paul Cézanne widely accessible for the first time. For the painters who saw the achievements of these great artists, the effect was one of liberation and they began to experiment with radical new styles. Fauvism was the first movement of this modern period, in which colour ruled supreme.
- 12. FAUVISM The term ‘fauve’ is French for ‘wild beast’. It was first used by a critic in Paris in 1905 to deride the work of a group of Artists who used colour and paint with great freedom; distorting the natural appearance of their subjects. Although the Fauve artists shared many interests and ideas for a short period (1904-07), they were never a formal group and each worked in a highly individual style.
- 13. Henri Mattisse (1869-1954) The Master of Colour Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. They are artists of classical greatness. Comparisons to Raphael (born leader/ encourager) and Michaelangelo (inhibited others through own power). Matisse, slower and more methodical by temperament and it was Picasso who initially made the greater splash. Long and varied career spanning from impressionism to near abstraction. Late to the game.
- 14. Matisse's art has an astonishing force and lives by innate right in a paradise world into which Matisse draws all his viewers. He gravitated to the beautiful and produced some of the most powerful beauty ever painted. He was a man of anxious temperament, just as Picasso, who saw him as his only rival, was a man of peasant fears, well concealed. Both artists, in their own fashion, dealt with these disturbances through the sublimation of painting: Picasso destroyed his fear of women in his art, while Matisse coaxed his nervous tension into serenity. He spoke of his art as being like "a good armchair"-- a ludicrously inept comparison for such a brilliant man-- but his art was a respite, a reprieve, a comfort to him
- 15. “ He lived through some of the most traumatic political events in recorded history, the worst wars, the greatest slaughters, the most demented rivalries of ideology, without, it seems, turning a hair. Matisse never made a didactic painting or signed a manifesto, and there is scarcely one reference to a political event - let alone an expression of political opinion - to be found anywhere in his writings.” Eden before the fall.
- 16. Henri Matisse, Luxe, calm et volupte , 1904, Oil on canvas, 98 by 118.5cm
- 19. Paul Signac , Port St. Tropez ,1899.
- 21. Shows the influence of post-impressionism –in particular his friend Signac but also the pointillism of Seurat. Juxtaposition of dots or small strokes of primary colours methodically laid on canvas. Subtle combination of pinks, yellows and blues. Colour Form/Composition Influences Meaning Henri Matisse, Luxe, calm et volupte , 1904, Oil on canvas, 98 by 118.5cm Detail from a Seurat painting
- 22. Uses only the essentials of line and colour. Nudes drastically simplified so that they take on a purely decorative function. Questions the landscape tradition. Decorative rather than descriptive role. Galvanised Fauvism. Derain and Vlaminick. Henri Matisse, Luxe, calm et volupte , 1904, Oil on canvas, 98 by 118.5cm
- 23. Art Nouveau Movement Art Nouveau is French and means New Art. It is characterized by its highly decorative style and by the dedication to natural forms. Art Nouveau was popular from about 1880 to 1910 and was an International art movement. Art Nouveau was not restricted to painting or printmaking. It covered all forms of art - architecture, furniture, jewellery, glass and illustration. With the philosophical roots in high quality handicraft, Art Nouveau was nothing for mass production.
- 25. Henri Matisse. La Japonaise: Woman beside the Water , 1905. Oil and pencil on canvas, 35 x 28 cm.
- 26. Paintings such as this executed during 1905 evidence a calligraphic style. Drawing based. Local colour is supressed , not eradicated. (Barefoot). Newly invented linear script, made up of a variety of strokes which seem to wriggle over the paper. Henri Matisse. La Japonaise: Woman beside the Water , 1905. Oil and pencil on canvas, 35 x 28 cm.
- 27. Matisse, The Open Window , 1905. Oil on Canvas.
- 28. Paintings of this period search for an equilibrium between nature and the imagination, and expression through balance and harmony. Demonstrated in balance of interior/exterior space. Secondly, a balance of colour. What outlook on life does this painting suggest? Purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter. –Art for the mental worker. Matisse, The Open Window , 1905. Oil on Canvas.
- 29. “ I had the sensation of colouring an object. This enabled me to set down the first colour on the canvas. I would then add a second colour, and then, instead of painting it out when the second colour did not seem to go well with the first, I would add a third one intending to harmonise them.” Would go on until he felt he had a complete harmony on the canvas. Not a mirror reflecting “what I have lived through in making it, but a powerful, new and expressive object which is as new to me as anyone else. When I take in a green marble table and find that in the end I am obliged to make it red –I am not completely satisfied, it takes me several months to recognise that I have created a new object which is worth the one that I wasn’t able to do.” Matisse, The Open Window , 1905. Oil on Canvas.
- 30. Madame Matisse , “The Green Line”, 1905. Oil on Canvas, 40 by 32cm
- 31. Her oval face is bisected with a slash of green and her coiffure, purpled and top-knotted, juts against a frame of three jostling colours. Her right side repeats the vividness of the intrusive green; on her left, the mauve and orange echo the colours of her dress. A creative experiment in harmony. From a group of works shockingly exhibited in Salome D’ Automne in 1905. Public were not prepared for this portrait. An insult to the traditionally emphasised take on women as objects of beauty. The green stripe down the center of the face acts as an artificial shadow line and divides the face chromatically, with a cool and warm side. Influences: Gauguin’s Tahitian paintings. Madame Matisse, “The Green Line”, 1905. Oil on Canvas, 40 by 32cm
- 32. The traditional techniques of employing light and shadow to produce depth are here replaced by flat areas of contrasting colours. Far removed from his sensuous nudes of this period. Madame Matisse, “The Green Line”, 1905. Oil on Canvas, 40 by 32cm
- 33. Henri Matisse, The Gypsy, 1906
- 34. Like ‘ The green stripe’ but perhaps more so, the paint gives the illusion of having been squeezed directly from the tube and spread by brush, palette knife and fingers. In both pieces, a physical involvement with the paint that is comparable to a sculptors involvement with his clay. Henri Matisse, The Gypsy, 1906
- 35. Le bonheur de vivre (The Joy of Life) 1905-06, Oil on canvas, 175 x 24cm.
- 38. Stronger colours –green, orange, violet, blue, pink and yellow –occupy spaces that the trees, figures and landscapes naturally dictate. As much a refutation of pointillism as Luxe, Calme and Voluptuous had been a confirmation. Guided much more by instinct and feeling than the more dogmatic approach to colour theory used in pointillism. Comparisons with Jean Ingre’s L’ Age d’or 1862. Deeply indebted to Gauguin’s work. Le bonheur de vivre (The Joy of Life) 1905-06, Oil on canvas.
- 39. Figures themselves are at once both symbolic and ornamental. Represent a golden age in which man and nature are one. Matisse draws on the lines of the human body so as to harmonise the visual values of unmixed colours to which nothing has been added but white –to harmonize and to simplify. Le bonheur de vivre (The Joy of Life) 1905-06, Oil on canvas.
- 40. The new Matisses, seen in the autumn of 1905, were very shocking indeed. Even their handful of defenders were uncertain about them, while their detractors thought them barbaric. "There was some truth, if a very limited truth, to the cries of barbarism Time and again, Matisse set down an image of a pre-civilized world, Eden before the Fall, inhabited by men and women with no history, languid as plants or energetic as animals. Then, as now, this image held great appeal for the over-civilized
- 41. Matisse, Harmony in Red/La desserte, 1908, Oil on canvas, 180 x 220 cm.
- 43. Matisse, Dinner Table, 1897, Oil on canvas, 100 x 131cm.
- 45. Lyrical, Rythymic feel –joyful and hedonistic. Patterning and black outlining –very Art Nouveau, but also an influence of primitive art. Saturated colour –red is very intense, but is almost scientifically balanced by the complementary green of the window. Intense colour of the red is broken up by the vast amount of patterning. The intensity of the red and the patterning are the same both on the wallpaper and the tablecloth: this has the effect of flattening the space and perspective. The woman becomes flattened; she blends in with the patterning. COLOUR DENIES PICTORIAL DEPTH. Matisse, Harmony in Red/La desserte, 1908, Oil on canvas, 180 x 220 cm.
- 46. The red of the walls and tablecloth, with the interweaving blue pattern, is one of Matisse's most unusual colour creations, with a history just as fascinating and complex. The canvas began its life as Harmony in Green, and was then transformed to Harmony in Blue. It then was bought by Sergei Shchukin, who honoured Matisse's request to work on it one last time, with this Masterpiece as the final result. Green –too little contrast. Blue –not abstract enough. The red dispelled any suggestion of naturalism. Matisse, Harmony in Red/La desserte, 1908, Oil on canvas, 180 x 220 cm.
- 47. How is this painting typical of Fauvism? Harmony in Red (and Fauvism in general) express the joy and harmony of life by exploring potential of pure colour. It uses bold, vivid colours in an almost scientifically balanced harmonious way. Typical Fauvist influences demonstrated: (G.V.A) Painting also reflects Fauvist influence of Gauguin in intense areas of bright colour and black outlining. Van Gogh through expressive emotion of work. Fauvists also influenced by Art Nouveau; in this painting Matisse has been inspired by Art Nouveau’s sensuous organic lines, themes of nature, and intricate patterning.
- 48. How do Non-Western influences impact on this work? Although inspired by Art Nouveau, Matisse was also influenced by art from non-western countries. The Fauvists admired the boldness and simplification of primitive art and this is evidenced in Matisse’s BOLD SIMPLIFIED patterning and SIMPLIFIED forms –especially the woman. The paintings’ flattened perspective, outlining and flat areas of colour also reflect the Fauvist interest in Japanese printmaking.
- 49. What is innovative about Matisse’s use of colour and form in this painting? Matisse has rejected the post-impressionists’ use of subtle colour shades. He shows a desire to liberate colour from descriptive function –bold, vivid and non-naturalistic colour is instead used to provoke an emotional response. Colour rather than subject becomes the most important part of the painting. Matisse’s lyrical, rhythmic use of line is particularly obvious in this painting. The patterning, which is the same on the wall and table cloth have the effect of simplifying and flattening the painting to 2D –rejecting traditional perspective.
- 50. Matisse, Dance (II), 1910, Oil on canvas, 260 x 391 cm, Leningrad.
- 51. The overall effect of the image is calming because of the simplification of forms. Describe the Action of the painting. Bodies fill the design: feet are pressed against the bottom of the canvas, and the upper edge is carried on a bent head and powerful shoulders, suggesting the expansion of individual body energy. Each body form seems to incorporate instantaneous impressions of vigorous movement (for example, the skipping backwards step). Indications of movement seem to contradict each other, although the overall effect seems to be of clockwise movement. Matisse, Dance (II), 1910, Oil on canvas, 260 x 391 cm, Leningrad.
- 52. What is the relationship to primitive art styles? The flattening of the forms (their lack of three-dimensional modelling) derives from Matisse’s study of the artefacts of other cultures. What is Optical fluorescence? This term describes the way colours can seem to physically vibrate in opposition to each other. The lines Matisse has used seem both Graphic and mobile/flickering. Matisse, Dance (II), 1910, Oil on canvas, 260 x 391 cm, Leningrad.
- 53. A frenzied picture, the dancers seem to be caught up in the pounding force of some primeval, savage work, bodies distorted, limbs leaping madly. Matisse's editing is extraordinarily powerful; in allotting each of the elements, earth, sky, and body, its own local colour and nothing more, he gives the scene a riveting presence. Within that simplicity, boundless energy is discovered. The Dance is one of the few wholly convincing images of physical ecstasy made in the twentieth century. The essence of Rhythm. Matisse, Dance (II), 1910, Oil on canvas, 260 x 391 cm, Leningrad.
- 54. Matisse, La Danse (first version), 1909, Oil on Canvas, 259 x 390cm. Moma
- 56. Both versions nearly identical in composition, the simplifications of the human body attacked as inept or willfully crude. Also noted was the work's radical visual flatness: the elimination of perspective and foreshortening that makes nearer and farther figures the same size, and the sky a plane of blue. Here, the figure at the left moves purposefully; the strength of her body is emphasized by the sweeping unbroken contour from her rear foot up to her breast. The other dancers seem so light they nearly float. The woman at the far right is barely sketched in, her foot dissolving in runny paint as she reels backward. The arm of the dancer to her left literally stretches as it reaches toward the leader's hand, where momentum has broken the circle. The dancers' speed is barely contained by the edges of the canvas. Matisse, La Danse (first version), 1909, Oil on Canvas, 259 x 390cm. Moma
- 57. La Musique, 1910, Oil on canvas, 260 x 398cm. Leningrad.
- 59. Same elements as La Danse . Five red bodies, a green hill and a blue sky. However, the Male figures here are not linked by any unifying dynamic, such as the oval motif. Rather than being three-quarter turned, they now face the viewer frontally, and in doing so are more emphatically separated from each other but also make a full face demand for the viewers attention. La Musique, 1910, Oil on canvas, 260 x 398cm. Leningrad.
- 60. 1. Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles D’Avignon , Oil on canvas. 2. Matisse, La Danse (II), 1910, Oil on canvas, 260 x 391 cm. i). With specific reference to the above two works, compare the differences in both style and theme present in the works of Matisse and Picasso.