Product Description
The major writings of Henri Matisse (1869-1954), with the exception of the letters, are collected here along with transcriptions of important interviews and broadcasts given at various stages of Matisse's career. Jack Flam provides a biography, a general introduction that addresses the development of Matisse's aesthetic values and theories, and a critical introduction for each text.
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Customer Reviews (5)

indispensible
This book is simply indispensible for any working artist.Matisse is very clear about the act of painting and its relation to reality, without fussing about.He is particularly clear about the artist's struggle with what he calls "a limited medium" -- in the aftermath of photography, cinema, etc. And of course, if you want to know anything about the deployment of colour, here is your man. The book appears to be in bits and pieces, journalistic, but there are endless gems here.And of course the seriousness of a true artist.

Matisse Opens the Way
If you want to extend the boundaries of ordinary perception, in order to produce unique, distinctive visions read "Matisse on Art."It is a critical piece of literature written by a masterfully innovative painter.I recommend it as a professional artist for nearly 20 years and as an art professor.

not looking but listening
Painters are often their own worst enemies when speaking about their work, obscuring rather than enlightening. But not Matisse. The intelligent and painter knew the trap that speaking of his art could be, yet his owncomments on it are intelligent and illuminating. This book is fine readingthat's a help to the working painter, as well as the viewer. You'll look atMatisse's great paintings with a fresh eye after reading it. And that'swhat matters.

not looking but listening
Painters are often their own worst enemies when speaking about their work, obscuring rather than enlightening. But not Matisse. The intelligent and painter knew the trap that speaking of his art could be, yet his owncomments on it are intelligent and illuminating. This book is fine readingthat's a help to the working painter, as well as the viewer. You'll look atMatisse's great paintings with a fresh eye after reading it. And that'swhat matters.

A very interesting book.
Here are compiled the writings of and interviews with Matísse. It is notonly about his estethic concerns but also about his feeling for life. Thelatter was his underlying motif in his paintings. This book is veryinteresting also for people without artistic concerns since Matísse hereconveys his fine-tuned philosophy of life. A highly rewarding book that onecan return to many times.

Mats Winther ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

One of the Best Art Books You Will Ever Own!!!
I'm amazed that this is the first review of this particular edition of Jazz, by Henri Matisse for, this book published in 1984 by George Braziller, Inc. of New York is one of the coolest art books you will ever own.It is essentially an elephant folio reproduction of the original edition book as published by Teriade (publisher of the iconic art journal Verve) in 1947.In fact, Braziller borrowed copy number 43 to create the reproduction.
Jazz, the book, is a series of exquisite, garish paper cut-outs created by Henri Matisse during a convalesce in Southern France in the early years of the Second World War although the book itself was not published until 1947 in an edition of 250 copies.
By now many of the most iconic images from the book have entered our modern vernacular with images such as the depiction of Icarus, as seen on the cover, being sold in museum stores the world round.
The original book is a series of musings by the artist accompanied by numerous cut-outs many evoking the circus. George Braziller's book includes a forward by the critic, author and art historian Riva Castleman followed by an English language translation of the original text and then the facsimile of the original text and images all in approximately 160 pps.As stated this is an enormous book measuring something like 12" x 16", and the production values are of the highest level as might be expected of an art book printed and bound in Germany.The paper, possibly wove, is very thick, high quality cream colored and so thick that it approaches something like Arches.The reproductions are NOT off-set lithography and so the images aren't marred by the small ink dots characteristic of off-set lithography.In fact, they have the look and feel of a linocut or woodblock print and faithfully reproduce the original artwork/book.
I highly recommend this book to anybody who enjoys high quality 'coffee table' art books.
Please note that this review is of the First Trade Edition, hardbound, elephant folio issue.This book proved so popular that it was reprinted in various formats by various other publishers, but this 1984 edition is far superior to any subsequent efforts. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

If only this were in color!
From a scholarly point of view, this is the most important book ever written about Matisse's final and unique art form.A series of remarkable essays explore Matisse's career, his development as an artist, thecircumstances which led to his creation of this unique medium, and theevolution of the cut-outs from small, aquatic works to monumental art.Anessay on the book Jazz is particularly relevant.A technical appendixoutlining conservation strategies for two large works provides insightsinto the material nature of these very fragile pieces.All in all, aremarkable scholarly achievement.

That said, the major flaw of this bookis the paucity of color plates.I realize that color printing isexpensive, but 25 plates out of a total of over 400 duotone illustrationsis a little miserly and fails to do justice to the works of art.At thevery least, every cut-out shown in this exhibition should have beenillustrated in color.I am at a loss to understand why this majoroversight occurred, since John Elderfield published a fine book on the samesubject in 1978 with excellent, full-color, reproductions.Since a largescale exhibition of these delicate (and expensive - Composition With RedCross (1947) recently brought over $10,000,000 at auction) works isunlikely to occur again, it seems to me that it would be worthwhile toreprint this book in color.Imagine an art book celebrating the greatestcolorist of the 20th century illustrated only in black-and-white!Theauthors did an injustice to Matisse by forgetting this simple fact. Otherwise, an essential addition to your Matisse library. ... Read more

Product Description
The Cone sisters, Claribel and Etta, acquired their first Matisse in 1906 and, during the next four decades, went on to form one of the world’s great collections of his art. The Cone Collection not only contains major works from every phase of Matisse’s long career but also reflects the sisters’ special interest in his Nice period, when a new complexity of form and psychology entered the ever intense surface allure of his paintings.

Matisse in the Cone Collection breaks new ground by offering the first scholarly exploration of this exceptional group of works, all donated to the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1950. Doreen Bolger’s Foreword traces the Cone sisters’ early association with Leo and Gertrude Stein, their growing friendship with Matisse, and the building of their collection. An essay by Jack Flam guides readers through the sisters’ collection of Matisse’s art and, simultaneously, charts the artist’s development from his Neo-Impressionist work of the 1890s to his late style of the 1940s, which is marked by the use of cut-paper and an increasingly linear language of form.

The publication of this book will coincide with the reopening of the Cone Wing of the Baltimore Museum of Art after a renovation designed to make the galleries reflect the period in which the art was first made and collected. ... Read more

Product Description
The parallel lives of two compelling and competitive artists and their recurrent engagements with desire and mortality.

Matisse and Picasso achieved extraordinary prominence during their lifetimes. They have become cultural icons, standing not only for different kinds of art but also for different ways of living. Matisse, known for his restraint and intense sense of privacy, for his decorum and discretion, created an art that transcended daily life and conveyed a sensuality that inhabited an abstract and ethereal realm of being. In contrast, Picasso became the exemplar of intense emotionality, of theatricality, of art as a kind of autobiographical confession that was often charged with violence and explosive eroticism. In Matisse and Picasso, Jack Flam explores the compelling, competitive, parallel lives of these two artists and their very different attitudes toward the idea of artistic greatness, toward the women they loved, and ultimately toward their confrontations with death. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

No color for the art book in kindle edition
I am using iPad version of Kindle that can display colors.
This book is also an art book, and displaying the arts in black and white
is meaningless. While I understand Amazon's black and white only Kindle
for low battery consumption and cheap price, I will never buy such device
(that can handle only black and white).
Even though Kindle device is itself black and white, I hope that
the contents be in color, since there are Kindle readers that can display
colors, like iPad Kindle (Mac Kindle, PC Kindle) and so on.

Must read for Art lovers!!!
This is an excellent book. I am thoroughly enjoying it.
This book compares great painters 'Henri Matisse' and 'Pablo Picasso' works and the influence of each other and their works on the others art.
Henri Matisse with his keeping the painting simple and lively and Picasso with his cubism, drawing from imagination are 'artists of different worlds'. They have different painting styles and they paint at exactly opposite times.
The book goes through the works of each in the order one was done as a reacton to the other, sometimes one trying to beat the other at their own style.

CITES:
Baudelaire's essay- 'The Painter of Modern Life'.
Apollinaire's essay on Picasso's work.(also his 'La Poete assasine')
Picasso's play - 'Desire caught by the tail'.
Matisse - 'Notes of a Painter'.

Lucid, Riviting Artist Stories
Imagine one tightly written book that can tell you what the art world was like for much of the 20th Century! Jack Flam is the man who did just that in "Matisse Picaso." Then imagine learning all about the lives of Matisse and Picasso and their loves along with their push-pull friendship and competition. After that get the skinny on the paintings both men painted. I never even saw all the -------- in Picasso's paintings. Now, it is hard to see anything else.

I found this book to be much more exciting then typical biographies that include all the boring parts of people's lives. Here you get all the interesting parts with all the boring parts left out. I read every word and recommend the book without reservation. In fact, I believe every art student needs to read this book, every artist, every art affictionado.

Esthetic in braid
If this be gossip, then it is the best kind. Engaging account of the rivalry/synergy of Matisse and Picasso and the interactions over half a century, with a Gertrude Stein introit at the beginning. This competition is fairly lightweight stuff as far as I can see although throwing rubber suction darts at a Matisse painting gets close to borderline rascalian--Picasso probably loses points on adolescent misdemeanours, but the art of both leaves us unable to judge, save that a third here could not be found.

Matisse and Picasso by Flam
This is an excellent work for art history enthusiasts. It depicts
many famous works of art by Matisse and Picasso. Classically,
Matisse is known for the artful use of color; whereas, Picasso
is credited with the unique form of Cubism which pervades
his artwork. Flam depicts important works by both artists.
For instance, Matisse's "The Woman With The Hat" is shown in
full color. Picasso's "The Acrobat's Family" is depicted
together with "The Two Nudes". These pictures show the emotional side of Picasso's work in contradistinction to
Matisse's exercise of restraint. This book would make a
perfect gift for a friend, relative or art buff. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (2)

Very Rare But Essential Volume
French Artist Henri Matisse (1869-1954) just got better as he got older.Never as fluent a talent as his rival Picasso, Matisse instead worked for a lifetime to achieve an unparalleled immediacy and spontaneity in his art.Personally, the 1940s were difficult years for Matisse: He witnessed the fall of France to the Nazi legions and separated from his wife permanently in 1940, and in 1941 he developed a case of serious intestinal cancer.The operation nearly killed him and left him a semi-invalid for the remaining 13 years of his life.The "Themes and Variations" suite, begun in September 1941 and completed in March 1942, may be his most important sustained meditation on the art and philosophy of the line.Although Matisse is best remembered as an absolute master of color, line in fact forms the vital substructure of his investigation into the nature of reality and of vision.This volume - now sadly out-of-print and very hard to find - makes available to the public all 168 images produced in the suite. The subjects are familiar, even traditional - still lives, arrangements of flowers and fruit, seated female
figures - but the method is extraordinary.As in the notebooks of Leonardo or Picasso's 1930s Vollard Suite, Matisse approaches drawing as an intellectual act.Each group of drawings begins with the "theme" - a heavily-reworked charcoal - and continues with the "variation" - anywhere from 3 to 16 treatments of the same basic image done in pen-and-ink (for the most part) or conte crayon (rarely).Each "theme" treats the friable medium of charcoal as the equivalent of oil paint; although the final image is composed of a few simple lines, Matisse achieves volume and depth through the pentimenti left behind by previous versions which were erased in the search for the simplest form.In some cases, the effect of the multiple erasures creates an uncanny sense of movement and the passage of time, as in time-lapse or superimposition photography.The "variations,"on the other hand, offer a different perspective.Most people have very little idea just how difficult pen-and-ink drawing really is - one mistake, one hesitation, a single error in judgment, and all is ruined.The "variations" here are truly masterful.One's eyes are literally dazzled by the fluency, spontaneity and immediacy of Matisse's line and his ability to create planar space and the illusion of color in images that lack conventional shading.The method itself is nearly Chinese or ancient Egyptian - a search for eternal forms below the surface of reality. Yet reality itself is a shifting surface in these drawings - Matisse changes angles, poses, and linear weights constantly,emphasizes a different aspect of the basic composition, zooms in for a close-up or out for a wide-angle view, and even alters the format from vertical to horizontal and back again.In the drawings which examine human subjects (mostly his favorite models Lydia Delectorskaya and the beautiful Turkish princess Nezy Chawkat), the appearance of the models also shifts, from near-portraiture to abstract signs and back again (seen for instance here in the lovely juxtaposition of the last drawing of the M series with the "theme"of the P series; one is an utterly simple portrait of Madame Lydia done in graphite, the other is a monumental charcoal of the same woman, her features now reduced to a blank oval).Logically, most of us know that "reality" is ever-changing - the lessons of particle physics teach us that what we see as discrete objects are just vibrating energies held in suspension - but intellectually, most of us refuse this knowledge, preferring instead to live in a world of solid, eternal, unchanging forms.Line - a basic human invention which exists itself nowhere in nature - separates forms and planes, cutting space into separate objects and providing a border to nature's endless flow.Thus, Matisse's technique uses the most basic instrument of recording reality to 'recode" the world instead.Each "variation" seems to make a final statement, yet there is always another perspective, another angle, another shift in viewpoint.In some instances - like the famous "F" series, in which the model appears to slowly awaken from a dream - the effect Matisse creates is cinematic, suggestive of the passage of time.In this reviewer's opinion, the suite is the most intellectual and abstract linear investigation of reality in the 20th century and demonstrates that the image can be just as philosophical as the word.This fine book itself is a mini-masterpiece - the drawings are superbly reproduced and the constant shift in format from vertical to horizontal forces the reader to physically engage with each image. As with the best Dover publications, the binding is secure and the book may be consulted frequently without falling apart.Why this important volume is out-of-print is a mystery to me, for no art library can be considered complete without it.Available through dealers of rare books, and usually for a price of not less than $100, but worth every penny to the right person. A must-have.

A necessary reprint, but the text should have been included
Lovers of fine drawings and of Matisse should definitely add this book to their collections.Dover has reprinted a volume originally published in Paris in 1943 as a series of loose portfolios.The drawings were done byMatisse from spring 1941 to summer 1942, and comprise a thematically andtechnically linked suite lettered from A to P.Each set consists of a"theme" drawing done in heavily reworked charcoal, accompanied bya series of "variations" executed in ink, pencil, or crayon.Thesubjects are elegantly dressed women (mostly his model, LydiaDelectorskaya) and arrangements of flowers and fruit.These subjects areinterwoven to create a stunning tapestry of draughtsmanship, suggestive ofa timeless realm of beauty bathed in the brilliant light of the Coted'Azur.Despite the order of the drawings, they may be examined by thereader as he or she pleases, but I find that viewing the book inchronological sequence produces the sensation of viewing a filmstrip.Therapid execution of many of the drawings creates a sensation of overlapping moments, an illusion of shifting time which almost places you in Matisse'smind as the works were made.I would have given this book 5 stars (for theart alone), but the editors made two mistakes: first, they omitted theintroductory text written by Louis Aragon, and second, the bulk of thedrawings are reproduced horizontally, which makes the book somewhatdifficult to use (the original edition, which was unbound did not have thisproblem).Also, the cover design is less than inspired.Otherwise, thisis a necessary addition to any art library, especially since the originaledition of this book is quite rare. ... Read more

Product Description
Examines Matisse's impact on modern art as well as examining his career, techniques, aesthetics, and stages of artisticdevelopment. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Color games
Henri MATISSE's first success as an artist was his Paul Cezanne-type "La liseuse" still-life, with a brown and green flowered wallpaper pattern picked up as a cloth in his later "Nature morte a l'autoportrait." But his favorite painter was actually Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin, as seen in the cool greys of his "Nature morte aux peches" and "Nature morte aux raisins" still-lifes. His still-life "Grande marine grise" springboarded the empty and symmetrical freedom of a Caspar David Friedrich landscape into the Piet Mondrian-styled beaches of modern art. In fact, much of the rest of his work had a part in how twentieth-century art, with its concern over color, turned out: "La coiffure," with its enormous hanging arm from Michelangelo's "Night" figure clasping hand to head, for a modern art growing out of twentieth-century anxieties; "Collioure" series, with figures recognizable from flat colors and with meadows dyed red against green, for a dazzling light from a Eugene Delacroix-type greatest outburst of opposing colors; "Le compotier" creating, not imitating, life by giving up color as description for Japanese print-type color as expression; "La desserte" showing dark tones coloring more brilliantly than light; "Homme nu," as an Auguste Rodin-type striding figure, taking one side in the twentieth-century artistic question over form holding its own edges against color or shaping from spreading color, as in "Bronze et fruit" still-life and his Paul Gauguin-type "Nu assis" figure almost lost against the arbitrarily patterned sunlight; "Interieur au rideau Egyptien" and "L'interieur rouge" finalizing Fauvism by energizing light and uniting picture parts; "Lecon de piano," as his masterpiece experiment abstracting garden greens and room colors; "Luxe, calme et volupte" escaping into the grandly simple Cezanne style of "Trois baigneuses" and leading into Symbolism; "Madame de Matisse," as a specific person in an alertly balanced pose, just by a Constantin Brancusi-type sculptured eyebrow and nose against blue sending off grey for the curved shaping of her head, for Amedeo Modigliani's and twentieth-century art's figures directly shown as being physical presences and filling human roles; "Nature morte, Seville" riotously patterning color; "Le reve" balancing field and figure, in-between areas and physical presence in pink arabesquing against blue; "La serpentine" collecting light along arabesqued thick lower legs and thin thighs into a separately modelled physical effect, as later seen in his own "Jeannette" busts and in Pablo Picasso; "Le the," with a Cubist-type head for his daughter Marguerite; and "Vue de St Tropez" landscaping Paul Signac-type energetically brushstroked color. So, through appropriately chosen illustrations and carefully organized text, the author leaves us on excellent terms with what Matisse did for art: I particularly like the attention that Lawrence Gowing gives to the cut-paper works, such as "La danse" and "Le rouge et le noir," and to the Vence chapel stained glass, as special favorites for my sculptress mother and artist sister. Unfortunately, the book is now out-of-print: so any readers not tracking down a stray copy might want to look into MATISSE: THE WONDER OF COLOR by Xavier Girard, HENRI MATISSE: CUT-OUTS ALBUM, HENRI MATISSE: THE VENCE CHAPEL, and MATISSE IN TAHITI by Paule Laudon. ... Read more

Product Description
If painting was for Matisse the expression of a "state of condensed sensations," his engravings consisted of "Traits Essentiels" or "essential lines:" they were recordings of a single sensation, and rarely passed through any series of stages or reworkings. In fact, engraving was a refuge. Marguerite Duthuit-Matisse, co-author of a catalogue raisonne of her father's prints, describes the graphic work he often executed at the end of a painting session as an "agreeable conclusion." After several experiments with drypoint, Matisse turned toward woodcut in 1906 (and gave it up almost immediately), then worked simultaneously in monotype and etching, where he achieved an astonishing tension between surface and line. Later, he turned to linocut and to sugarlift aquatint. It is on these projects that the selection in Traits Essentiels focuses: Lithography, which Matisse practiced from 1906 to 1952, and with which he was less experimental, is excluded. Text in French only. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Only Matisse can be Matisse
Excellent collection of Matisse's works. The drawings are so simple but tell a lot of the subject. All the drawings lack light but the reader is still able to see the full form of the subject. The drawings are also presented very clearly for the art student to study. ... Read more

Product Description
Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro and Andy Warhol each significantly shaped the development of art in the twentieth century. These Modern masters are the subjects of four small books, the first volumes in a series featuring important artists in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art. Each book presents a single artist and guides readers through a dozen of his most memorable achievements. Works are reproduced in color and accompanied by informative and accessible short essays that provide background on the artworks and on the artist himself, illuminating technique, style, subject matter and significance. Written by Carolyn Lanchner, former Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum, these books are excellent resources for readers interested in the stories behind masterpieces of the Modern canon and for those who wish to understand the contributions of individual artists to the history of Modern art. This volume focuses on Matisse. ... Read more

Product Description
A comprehensive annotated bibliography of texts relating to the artist, with an introduction examining the critical reception of Matisse during his life and after his death. This is volume 1 in the ARTISTS RESOURCE MANUALS series. A comprehensive survey of English and European language sour ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A beautiful book of Matisse works rarely seen outside Russia
Two of Russia's richest pre-Revolution industrialists had a competitive passion for collecting French impressionists' works, playing one-upsmanship over who had the best collection.They were early and eager purchasers of the works of Picasso, Cezanne, and Matisse, among others.Then came the Revolution, and their rich collections became property of the Soviet state and are now in Russia's two leading fine arts museums.

The inside flap of this book says:
"The book presents Matisse's paintings and sculptures from two major Soviet museums, the Pushin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow and the Hermitage in Leningrad.This rich and varied collection [is] one of the best in the world....The reproductions are accompanied by detailed notes, analogies, a bibliography and a list of exhibitions prepared by research workers of the Hermitage and the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts."

The book contains 288 illustrations, including 55 color plates.It is entirely in English.

The edition for sale was published in 1990 by Aurora Art Publishers, Leningrad, and printed and bound in Austria. (The first printing was in 1983.) The ISBN is 5-7300-0297-1. ... Read more