April 15, 2010

Expressionism is a term used to
describe the art period from
1905-1920

Expressionism is the opposite of
Impressionism, which emphasized
painting what the artist observed

The goals were to express emotions
through the use of vivid colors and
strong lines, rather than capturing a
likeness or reality

Henri Matisse wrote:
 “Creativity takes courage”

Matisse lived in France from 1869-1954

When Matisse was young, he became sick
with appendicitis. He had to stay in bed
for a long time. His mother gave him
paints and brushes to give him something
to do. He knew then that he wanted to be
an artist

Matisse is known for his simple and
colorful paintings and collages

Henri Matisse worked on his art for over
60 years and became one of the greatest
artists of the Modern Era

In 1905, Matisse became the leader of a group
of painters called the Fauves, which in French
meant the "wild beasts” because people
thought their paintings used intense color and
wild lines

Color for Matisse was like music, and he often
said that he heard "colors sing"

When he was in his 80's, Matisse
became ill and spent the rest of his
life in a wheelchair

Though he could not stand up to
paint, he could cut paper

He wrote:

"The paper cutouts allow me to draw with
color. Instead of drawing an outline and
then filling in with color, I draw directly in
color... It is not a starting point, it is a
completion."

This series of paper
cutouts used bright
colors and abstract
shapes to convey their
meaning

Like the music, Jazz is
unpredictable, yet
beautiful

Perhaps the best known collage of the
Jazz collection is Icarus, which is based
on the Greek myth

In the legend, the boy Icarus and his father,
Deadulus, are trapped on an island by the
king as a punishment for disloyalty

Deadulus fashions wings to escape, made
from feathers and wax

Although the father tells his son not to get
too close to the sun, Icarus doesn't listen

His wings begin to melt in the heat of the
sun, and he falls into the sea

This is a picture of the disobedient son, as
interpreted by Matisse, falling to earth

Commenting on The Swimming Pool, his largest
cutout, Matisse said,
 "I have always adored the sea, and now that I can no
longer go for a swim, I have surrounded myself with it.”

This nearly fifty-four-foot-long collage of blue
bathers on a white rectangular band was
designed for the walls of Matisse's dining room

Read from right to left, beginning and ending
with a starfish, the forms of the diving or
swimming people dissolve into the splashing
water

Each bather flows into the next

Collage - an artistic arrangement of materials and objects pasted or glued
over a surface

Unity: an arrangement in which all the parts seem related or unified

Positive space - Positive space is the space occupied by a subject in a
picture

Negative space - Negative space is the space that is not your subject in a
picture. It is everything else. It is defined by the edges of the positive
space and the frame.

For example, when one cuts a shape out of the middle of a sheet of paper,
the cut out shape is the positive space. The rest of the paper, a rectangle
with a hole in it, is the negative space

Abstract - An abstract artwork will not look real, but it might remind you
of something real. Abstract artwork might distort, exaggerate or simplify
real things

Realistic - A realistic artwork looks “real,” it shows recognizable places,
people, and things. It is also known as “representational art,” because it
represents real things

Organic shape - An organic shape is explained as a shape that appears in
nature. Examples are the shape of a leaf, or the shape of your shadow

Geometric shape - A geometric shape is a shape that can "easily" be
defined using mathematical formulas. Examples of geometric shapes
include squares, circles, triangle, spheres, pyramids, and cylinders