This is Henri Matisse. He was a French Painter at the turn of the 20th Century. He is considered one of the most important artists in Western art.
Henri Matisse
Matisse studied art at the most famous art school in France. His early paintings were based on the “academic” style or more realistic type of painting.
After he saw the work of fellow painter Paul Signac, he decided it was time for a change, and embraced a new way of painting, called neo- impressionist. Neo means “New” in French.
Matisse
Signac
You can see how an artist is influenced by his friends! But after a while, Matisse started developing his own style, which was called the “Fauvist” style. Le Fauve means wild beast in French! They used bright colors and flat patterns instead of realism.
When Matisse’s health started to decline, instead of standing and painting, he started sitting and cutting out pieces of paper to emulate the flat, graphic quality of his paintings. All of the bright colors and simple shapes are still there, just in a new material.
Painting
Cutout
Today, we will be creating cutout collages based on the works of Matisse. We can think about how Matisse used a variety of bright colors and shapes to create his layered collages.
Here are some student examples of cutout collages.