Met Museum: Matisse: In Search of True Painting

This article was originally published on December 24, 2012

For anyone with the least interest in the development of modern art, the Met Museum's current exhibit, Matisse: In Search of True Painting, is a must see. The artist's work method, in which he painted the same subject twice, or even several times, serves almost as a visual primer illustrating for the viewer the diverse influences affecting artists in the first half of the twentieth century. Few painters have gone to such lengths as Matisse did in painstakingly documenting the stages of artistic creation that led to the evolution of an individual style. This went so far as to include the use of a photographer, beginning in the 1930's, to reveal the day by day progress of later works.

Henri Matisse never held for me the charisma of other French artists of the period. Perhaps this is due to the conservative persona of the artist himself. In photos where he is seen wearing glasses and dressed neatly in suit and tie, he appears more a school teacher or banker than a fauve (wild beast) painter. This impression is only strengthened by Matisse's deliberate work method.

Studying the paintings on display, the viewer realizes that Matisse's work was much more the result of planned experimentation than of any burst of spontaneous inspiration. For example, in looking at the two versions of Young Sailor, one senses Matisse agonizing over the choice of style that will best express his vision. As the catalog states:

"Upon his return to the fishing village of Collioure in the summer of 1906, he depicted a local teenager in a work that has all the hallmarks of his own vividly colored, expressive Fauvism. He then painted a second version of the composition on an identically sized canvas, this time employing flat color and deformation to produce a drastically different effect. Unsure of his new direction, Matisse told friends that Young Sailor II had been painted by the local postman."

For me, the most interesting works were the 1918 paintings Interior at Nice and Interior with a Violin, both depictions of his room at the Hôtel Beau-Rivage in Nice. It was in these works that Matisse claimed to have painted light with black.

The exhibit continues through March 17, 2013.