Henri Matisse
French, 1869-1954
Bathers with a Turtle, 1908
oil on canvas
70 1/2 x 86 3/4 inches
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Pulitzer, Jr. 24:1964
CHICAGO (AP).- A new exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago takes a close — sometimes even microscopic — look at one short and enigmatic phase in the 65-year-long artistic career of France's Henri Matisse.
Matisse, who lived from 1869 to 1954, is often seen as the least controversial and the most serene of the great 20th century modernists. Though his occasional early sculptures are darker, Matisse's paintings and prints seem to live in a sunny place outside of time. Their tone of bright calm makes their reproductions favored decor for hospital corridors.
Looking at them, you would not know that Matisse lived through both world wars and the Great Depression, or that Paris fell to enemy troops twice in his lifetime — in 1871 and 1940.
Except for the academic interiors and still lifes he painted as a student after abandoning the law for art at age 20, Matisse's enduring trademarks were bright colors and a deceptively simple approach to form. Those aspects were present from the oils Matisse presented in 1905 as leader of the fauvists to the vast paper cutouts he created late in his life when arthritis made painting impossible.
But they disappeared suddenly when he returned to Paris from a trip to Morocco in 1913 and did not fully reappear until after the end of World War I. During that time, Matisse's paintings were dominated by blacks and grays, and there was an uncharacteristic density to his composition. Some critics attribute the change to war pressures and the challenge of a younger generation of painters, particularly the cubism championed by Matisse's younger friend and rival, Pablo Picasso. But Stephanie D'Alessandro of the Art Institute and John Elderfield of New York's MoMa believe Matisse decided to reinvent himself artistically and develop new methods of art construction.
D'Alessandro noted that when the Art Institute acquired the work a year before Matisse's death, the artist told the museum it was one of the five most pivotal works of his career. She also said he had kept it in his studio for years as an object for study.
Matisse began "Bathers by a River" in 1909 and revised it several times over the next year. He reworked it again several times in 1913, and again in 1916-1917. "We have learned that the canvas experienced more than 20 states (of composition) over the years, and that Matisse deliberately left traces of some of the older versions visible in its final form," D'Alessandro said. It was a practice he continued when he returned to a brighter palette and lighter forms in the 1920s and 1930s.
"He said once that the greatest works were those in which you had to start over from scratch to rework them," she added.
Excerpted from The Associated Press Copyright 2010
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