Matisse with cutting edge

Aug 17 2006 By Tamzin Lewis, The Journal

Some of Matisse's most iconic images are showing in Newcastle, as Tamzin Lewis discovers.

The late works by Henri Matisse are instantly recognisable. The Blue Nudes have become staple art prints and posters, beloved by people everywhere for their simplicity.

The interesting thing about these late works is that Matisse made them while confined to his wheelchair or bed. No longer able to paint, sculpt or make prints, he "drew with scissors." These works are paper cut-outs.

Matisse's assistants pre-painted paper with gouache under his supervision and the artist then cut directly into the paper to create them.

Matisse: Drawing with Scissors opens tomorrow at the University Gallery, Northumbria University. The 36 images in the exhibition are lithographic reproductions of cut-outs which were produced for the French art review Verve, published in 1958, four years after Matisse died. The publication had been discussed with the artist in the last years of his life and the first lithographic plates were prepared under his direction before his death.

It is the first time Matisse has been shown at the University Gallery. Director Mara-Helen Wood says: "We have been thinking about this show for a long time. It is an exhibition which was shown more than 20 years ago in London. At the time, we pursued the idea of bringing a small collection here but it wasn't feasible. Our new extension makes it possible to do that, and more."

Matisse was born in 1869 in the north of France and he started out as a clerk in a law office before going to Paris to study Fine Art. In 1905, Matisse and his group became known as the Fauves or "wild beasts" because of their anti-naturalism and unconventional use of bold and vivid colour. Matisse believed that the arrangement of colours was as important as subject matter to communicate meaning. His first cut-outs were made in the early 1930s for a mural, and in his next decade he came to regard them as resolving what he described as "the eternal conflict of drawing and colour".

He wrote: "There is no gap between my earlier pictures and my cut-outs. I have only reached a form reduced to the essential through greater absoluteness and greater abstraction."

Matisse was confined to his sickbed from about 1948 and at the age of 80 in 1950, he began to make large independent paper cut-outs. For the next four years these cut-outs formed his primary means of expression.

He wrote: "The paper cut-out allows me to draw in colour. Instead of drawing the outline and putting the colour inside it ... I draw straight into colour."

Matisse often worked on several cut-outs simultaneously, rearranging pieces until he was happy with the layout. When they were composed, the cut-outs would be pasted on to sheets of paper. Many were designs for stained glass windows or ceramic murals.

Mara says: "This exhibition is beautifully put together and has key pieces from his late period. They are among his last pieces. Matisse considered the cut-outs as important as his paintings. He thought they shouldn't be seen as separate but as part of the development of his work. Matisse's work is still so contemporary, and his cut-outs are incredibly influential, even to this day. The simplicity of line has influenced both artists and fashion designers."

This National Touring Exhibition organized by London's Hayward Gallery is being shown alongside an exhibition of new work by Berwick-based artist Brita Granström.

Brita is a children's book illustrator who has created award-winning books with her husband Mick Manning over the past 10 years. Her new exhibition is of work created in the Borders and her native Sweden, including vibrant people-scapes and energetic flowers and plants.

Mara says: "I think that Brita's mark making will fit with Matisse. You can see a pattern and link between the two, in connection with the plant life, but also in terms of vibrancy of colour. The two work beautifully together."

* Matisse and Brita Granstrom are at the University Gallery from August 18 to September 16. Contact: (0191) 227-4424.