Henri Matisse. Sight Automatic translate

Among the masters of the culture of Western Europe of the 20th century, Henri Matisse occupies an exceptional place both as an artist and as a thinker. The bright, huge talent of the artist largely determined the development of modern fine art in almost all of its possible manifestations.

All his life, Henri Matisse was in a non-stop search. In an effort to achieve the most effective and at the same time harmonious expression, he changed his artistic tools and changed himself. However, every time, submitting for a while to a new strong impression, Matisse absorbed it like a sponge, and then creatively processed it in accordance with his own worldview.

Matisse inherited and generalized in his work the spiritual wealth and the best features of the culture of the past and the culture of his time. A remarkable painter, draftsman and engraver, illustrator and master of book design, mural decorator, theater artist, sculptor, ceramist, master of tapestry and stained glass, creator of a new type of decorative art - paper cutouts painted with gouache - such was the widest creative range of Matisse.

In the last years of his life, using ordinary colored paper and scissors, Henri Matisse created applications that produced a stunning effect of symphonic color sounding, rhythmic musicality of lines and absolute compositional harmony. The pinnacle of these experiments was his only book, which he himself wrote and illustrated, called "Jazz", which now occupies a special place in the legacy of Matisse, presented in full at the exhibition.

120 lithographs from the works of Henri Matisse, presented at the exhibition, demonstrate his inexhaustible energy both as an artist and as a philosopher. All of them are accompanied by texts from his articles, books, letters and reflections.

Matisse’s work cannot be characterized within the framework of any particular direction, since he constantly went beyond any limits that limited him, again and again rushing to where no one had gone before.

The whole life of Matisse, like his art, became a long resistance, a conquest, a long, patient, sometimes painful, difficult, but adamant and beautiful image of freedom.