The Arts of Matisse

Proceeding under the assumption that it was necessary for Matisse "to extend his visual ideas in many directions to realize his full creative force" a University Course Exhibition has been arranged at Busch-Riesinger Museum containing many different objects of the late artist's work, including a chasuble designed for the Vence Chapel and illustrations of James Joyce's Ulysses.

Matisse early, a revolutionary period, so well represented at recent New York exhibits, is confined in his exhibition to prints such as "Seated Nude" which indicate the extreme freedom of line, but not the uninhabited use of color that won from critics the derisive label "fauve." When he painted "Bathers with a turtle," Matisse was already moving away from completely spontaneous expression toward a more "thoughtful freedom." In "1908" he showed that the passing sensations of moment did not completely define his feelings. From this point on, his goal seemed to be a "condensation" which would maintain his emphasis on "arranging in a decorative manner the various elements at his disposal for the expression of feeling" while at the same time trying to arrive at the essence of form. The "Bathers ..." shows simple architectural use of color and line so exaggerated as to more fully express the form Matisse felt was important.

Except for an occasional landscape such as "Montalban," which shows the same decorative and emotive technique applied to nature, Matisse devoted himself mostly to the nude, for, as he explained, "it is through it that I best succeed in expressing the nearly religious feeling that I have toward life." The variety of works in this exhibit concerning the nude provide in themselves an excellent insight into the development of Matisse's style.

In the posters, the papier decoupes and the decorative works, Matisse arrived at that "condensation" towards which his later paintings and drawings seemed to be moving. Its virtue are a profound simplicity of design and powerful use of color. A backlog of 50 years of technical knowledge imparts surety and strength to his childlike visions.