Henri Matisse

This past Saturday I visited the Baltimore Museum of Art once more. I purchased a membership so I can come and go as I please without fee so soon I imagine they will tire of seeing me. I spent a great deal of time looking at the Matisses in the Cone Collection again and also looked at the Jazz pieces on exhibit. The Matisses are really quite extraordinary. What he does with space and depth is breathtaking. Take, for example, the piece above. The pink flowered carpet. That yellow line. The viewer knows the woman is sitting but barely. The carpet appears very flat. There is barely a plane change creating depth (in fact, it may not even be noticeable in this repro). Could we really sit the way she is sitting? What is keeping her there? Yet, he convinces us and at first glance we are unaware of the flatness of the painting. Matisse is a master of twisting and turning space. He does it so that it is almost not noticeable and his paintings, because of that, are kept in a state of flux. The space is believable but there is something just a bit off if you look closer. A bit off and a bit magical.

Matisse in the heat

A few years ago, I picked up a copy of Matisse's Jazz at a used bookstore. It wasn't an original printing of course but a later edition reissued by The Metropolitan Museum of Art. I think it was three dollars at the most but I thought it was quite a find. This past Wednesday, I visited the Baltimore Museum of Art where Jazz is currently on exhibit. It was quite a treat to see it there and it was unexpected as I didn't know it was on view until I arrived at the museum. The day I visited was extremely hot, Baltimore was in the midst of a heat wave that lasted a good part of last week, and my energy level was at a lower level than I would have preferred for a museum going day. It was my first visit to the BMA and unfortunately, although I was greatly impressed with the collection, I was too tired to spend more than a brief hour and a half there but even my brief visit left me very excited to return.