Page 39 - Studio International - September 1970

in the last of the series. material—clay formed in the hand, paper
It is with The Back relief series in mind, and shapes formed by the action of scissors. In
also the smaller, hand-size sculptures of which both cases Matisse was in the material and
I spoke earlier, that I want to consider some subject to it to a greater extent than his
aspects of the late cut-outs. The application habitual detachment would allow elsewhere.
of these pieces to recent developments in These cut-out nudes may be considered sculp-
sculpture is so obvious that I have felt rather ture too in their unity of colour, and central
uneasy about approaching this aspect of coherence of shape. They follow from The
Matisse's work. I feel too, that his own com- Back reliefs in their acceptance of the condi-
ment that 'cutting straight into the chosen tion of flatness as a basis for creating an
colour reminded him of the direct carving of illusion of volume that has no dependence on
the sculptor' has tended to obscure what is deep perspective. The drawing of the shapes,
truly sculptural in these works. their apparent overlapping and entwining,
Matisse's central position in modern art was contrast with a rigorous flatness8 and separa-
gained and sustained by his awareness of tion of form : the freedom and invention of
what he felt to be the proper and essential proportions and postures, with the given
qualities of each branch of the plastic arts and articulation of the body. These figures, and
his isolation and development of those quali- notably the seated blue series, combine the
ties. In easel painting, in mural decoration, in serenity and order of the reclining figures of
drawing in various media, in sculpture, 1929 with the energy and abandon of The
Matisse's attitude to each was in considera- Ecorché and the painted figures in The Dance of
tion of their separateness—each having its own 1910. They must represent the point at which
tradition, its own means, its own effects—each Matisse's potential greatness as a sculptor was
demanding an attitude of mind, a working realized in a form that carried the full range
method proper to itself; the unifying factor and power of his experience in art. q
consisting solely in the intuition and confi-
dence of the artist. What is peculiar about the
cut-outs in the context of Matisse's total work
is that they were a new form, without history
or precedent. He initially used cut paper
shapes to assist in mural designs, then for the
designs of tapestries, rugs, ceramics and
stained glass. Many of the most ambitious
cut-papers after 1950 were still designed to be
executed in some other medium, or are con-
ceived still in terms of large-scale easel
paintings, which strongly work against an
enclosing rectangle, or of mural decorations
which were clearly designed to be translated 18
Seated Blue Nude II 1952
into ceramic and to animate a wall. But there Gouache cut-out
is one group of cut-outs which are complete 105 x 85 cm.
Private Collection, Paris
and satisfying in the original material and
19
which need neither enclosing frame nor wall Seated Blue Nude IV 1952
for support, and which may fairly be con- Gouache cut-out
122.9 x 76.8 cm.
sidered a new order of sculpture. I refer to the Private Collection, Paris
great series of Blue Nudes which he completed
in 1952.
The relationship of the poses of these figures 1 See 'Picasso—Cubist Constructions', Studio International their richness and density is revealed. Containers of
with certain sculptures can easily be estab- May 1970. modulated darkness, of depths of tone, they are the per-
2 Matisse often worked every evening for weeks or fect foil to the paintings, givers of light.
lished— the seated nudes with The Ecorché, and
months on a single sculpture, while working on differ- 7 I would except the large Seated Figure of 1925. This
Olga of 1910, the Nude with Flowing Hair with ent pictures during each day. All but a few of the piece was originally conceived in a much more upright
the Armless and Headless Torso of 1909, The paintings bear evidence of having been completed position (in common with the related, smaller Nude in
Standing Blue Nude with the Upright Nude of swiftly and directly, without overpainting or radical an Armchair, and various paintings and drawings of
1904, and Torso with Head (La Vie) of 1906 and alteration; it is a source of continual surprise to me how the same pose) ; but during the making of the sculpture
a sculpture like The Serf, on which Matisse is known to Matisse radically depressed the top half of the body to-
so on; but this similarity of articulation is not
have spent years, retains such a degree of clarity and wards the ground. The energy of the diagonal thrust
surprising. What seems to me much more freshness. thus achieved is spectacular, especially from the back,
fundamental is a correspondence in freedom, 3 See 'Brancusi', Studio International, April 1970. where the surfaces have been left full and round.
even wildness, of handling between Matisse's Hilton Kramer, 'Matisse as a Sculptor', Boston 8 From very close to, these cut-outs show a certain
less composed sculptures of the 1903-13 Museum Bulletin, 1966. modulation of surface. The actual thickness of the
5 One might advance the analogy of Matisse's sculp- painted paper is perceptible, especially where it is in
period and the cut-out figures; Matisse can
ture as 'fruit' in contrast to Rodin's as 'branch' : one places layered, and there is an occasional colour differ-
accept the motif of figures in poses of aban- stretches, reaches; the other is enclosed, contained. ence between separate pieces of paper in the same
doned emotion, even physical movement, and Even The Serpentine has the character of an extended figure; and overall a degree of whitish scuffing (which
the static figures are embued with an energy but finite volume, rather than a section of an infinite may have occurred after completion). Matisse was
and restlessness that was ironed out of the line. well aware of the physical and tactile properties of the
6 Sidney Geist notes Matisse's appreciation of bronze as cut paper; he apparently would leave the incomplete
more considered sculpture and paintings. The
the end-material of his sculpture. Photographs of cut-outs lightly pinned to the studio wall where they
connection between the two consists I think in sculptures in progress show the work in clay as some- would shift and tremble in the slightest draught.
the directness of Matisse's relation with the how flat and dead; but cast into the dark bronze,