IGCSE Graphic Design O-Level

1. FAUVISM
STARTED: 1899
ENDED: 1908
NAME
GRADE
DATE

2. WHAT IS FAUVISM?
Fauvism, the first twentieth-century movement in modern art, was
initially inspired by the examples of Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin,
Georges Seurat, and Paul Cézanne.
The Fauves ("wild beasts") were a loosely allied group of French painters
with shared interests. Several of them, including Henri Matisse, Albert
Marquet, and Georges Rouault, had been pupils of the Symbolist artist
Gustave Moreau and admired the older artist's emphasis on personal
expression.
Matisse emerged as the leader of the group, whose members shared the
use of intense color as a vehicle for describing light and space, and who
redefined pure color and form as means of communicating the artist's
emotional state.
In these regards, Fauvism proved to be an important precursor to Cubism
and Expressionism as well as a touchstone for future modes of
abstraction.

3. WHAT DOES FAUVISM MEAN?
• After viewing the boldly colored canvases of Henri Matisse, André
Derain, Albert Marquet, Maurice de Vlaminck, Kees van Dongen,
Charles Camoin, and Jean Puy at the Salon d'Automne of 1905, the
critic Louis Vauxcelles disparaged the painters as "fauves" (wild
beasts), thus giving their movement the name by which it became
known: Fauvism. The artists shared their first exhibition at the 1905
Salon d'Automne. The group gained their name after Vauxcelles
described their show of work with the phrase "Donatello chez les
fauves" ("Donatello among the wild beasts").
• The painting that was singled out for attacks was Matisse's Woman
with a Hat; this work's purchase by Gertrude and Leo Stein had a very
positive effect on Matisse, who was suffering demoralization from the
bad reception of his work.

4. KEY IDEAS
• One of Fauvism's major contributions to modern art was its radical goal of separating
color from its descriptive, representational purpose and allowing it to exist on the
canvas as an independent element. Color could project a mood and establish a
structure within the work of art without having to be true to the natural world.
• Another of Fauvism's central artistic concerns was the overall balance of the
composition. The Fauves' simplified forms and saturated colors drew attention to the
inherent flatness of the canvas or paper; within that pictorial space, each element
played a specific role. The immediate visual impression of the work is to be strong and
unified.
• Above all, Fauvism valued individual expression. The artist's direct experience of his
subjects, his emotional response to nature, and his intuition were all more important
than academic theory or elevated subject matter. All elements of painting were
employed in service of this goal.
http://www.theartstory.org/movement-fauvism.htm

5. HENRI MATISSE
• Born: 31 December 1869 Died: 3rd November, 1954

6. ABOUT HIM
• Henri-Émile-Benoît Matisse was a French artist, known for both his
use of color and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a
draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a
painter.
• Matisse is commonly regarded as one of the three artists who helped
to define the revolutionary developments in the plastic arts in the
opening decades of the twentieth century, responsible for significant
developments in painting and sculpture. He was initially labelled a
Fauve (wild beast) and by the 1920s he was increasingly hailed as an
upholder of the classical tradition in French painting. His mastery of
the expressive language of color and drawing, displayed in a body of
work spanning over a half-century, won him recognition as a leading
figure in modern art.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Matisse

7. • His vast oeuvre encompassed painting, drawing, sculpture, graphic arts (as diverse
as etchings, linocuts, lithographs, and aquatints), paper cutouts, and book
illustration. His varied subjects comprised landscape, still life, portraiture, domestic
and studio interiors, and particularly focused on the female figure.
• During his brief Fauvist period, Matisse produced a significant number of
remarkable canvases, such as the portrait of Madame Matisse, called The Green
Line (1905); Bonheur de vivre (1905–6); Marguerite Reading (1905–6); two versions
of The Young Sailor (1906), the second of which is at the Metropolitan Museum Blue
Nude: Memory of Biskra (1907; Baltimore Museum of Art); and two versions of Le
Luxe (1907), among others.
Types of his Works and Famous Paintings

8. HENRI MATISSE: THE CUT-OUTS
• Everyone knows Matisse is all about joy: the joy of dance, colour and life. Though
this is self-evident and rightly celebrated, it is a mistake just to accept it or to move
on without asking, what is this joy? The standard response would be a synonym
(vitality, perhaps) that would add little to an understanding of any real depth.
Instead, let’s consider joy as a form of defiance, in the face of grave illness and
mortality. Given three years to live (he would survive for more than a decade),
Matisse was wheelchair-bound when he created these works. Their very existence is
owed to the fact he could no longer paint as he once could. Instead, with assistance,
he sculpted in 2D with scissors and paper, or as he called it, “carving into color”. The
results, as authoritatively and delightfully shown in this exhibition, were bold,
spirited and inventive, as many critics have attested.

9. MATERIALS
• During the last decade of his life Henri Matisse deployed
two simple materials—white paper and gouache—to create
works of wide-ranging color and complexity. An unorthodox
implement, a pair of scissors, was the tool Matisse used to
transform paint and paper into a world of plants, animals,
figures, and shapes.

10. WHAT IS A CUT-OUT?
• The cut-outs were created in distinct phases. The raw
materials—paper and gouache—were purchased, and
the two materials combined: studio assistants painted
sheets of paper with gouache. Matisse then cut
shapes from these painted papers and arranged them
into compositions. For smaller compositions the artist
worked directly on a board using pins. For larger
compositions, Matisse directed his studio assistants
to arrange them on the wall of his studio.
Subsequently, cut-outs were mounted permanently,
either in the studio or in Paris by professional
mounters.
• https://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2014/matisse/the-cut-outs.html

11. PAINTING THE PAPER
• The color on Matisse’s cut-outs is produced using
gouache—a water-based, opaque, quick-drying,
matte paint that consists of pigment, binder, and
often a white pigment or filler to increase opacity.
Matisse purchased a wide range of colors at supply
houses in both Paris and Nice, choosing tubes based
on color and freshness. Studio assistants cut
rectangular sheets of paper from large rolls.
Gouache, thinned with water, was applied to the
paper and then weighted until dry. Some sheets had
a more dense application of gouache and some more
visibly retained the brushstrokes.

12. CUTTING
• When Matisse was working on a specific project, he would ask for
an assortment of painted paper sheets to be placed on the studio
floor. He would choose a particular sheet and then cut a shape,
letting the remainder of the sheet fall to the floor. For larger forms
a studio assistant would assist in guiding the paper to facilitate a
smooth and continuous cut. Although Matisse was filmed using
large scissors, close examination of the existing cut-outs shows
that he must have used a variety of sizes. Some forms, even very
large ones, were cut from one sheet of paper. Others, particularly
the stars that appear in many works, were cut from many smaller
shapes, which were assembled to create the final desired form. In
some cases the multiple pieces narrowly overlap; in others large
cut forms were overlaid with yet another cut form. The outline of
the form was the ultimate goal of the artist, not the layered
structure.

13. PINNING
• Matisse used pins (probably sewing pins),
thumb tacks, and thin nails to secure the cut
forms; for small formats the artist would work
on a board while sitting in a chair or in bed. As
compositions grew in size the walls of the studio
became the supports for the cut-outs. Studio
assistants would pin cut forms to the wall with
a hammer, following the directions of the artist.
This method allowed for quick and easy
attachment; positions could be altered and
refashioned easily. The numerous pinholes that
remain in the cut-outs attest to these initial
mountings and repositionings.

14. TRACING
• It was often necessary to remove a cut-
out from the studio wall, either when
Matisse needed wall space for a new
composition or when works were to be
mounted. In order to have an accurate
and permanent record of the placement
of each cut form, a tracing was made.
When there were overlapping forms, each
form was numbered on the reverse.

15. MOUNTING
• Until 1950–51 Matisse and his studio assistants mounted cut-outs in the
studio, as the works were modest in their dimensions. When works were
sold prior to this date, they were mounted with a technique called "spot
gluing." The cut forms were adhered to the underlying paper with small
dabs of glue. The technique allowed for the works to be framed and
transported while retaining the three-dimensional liveliness they had
when pinned to a board or the wall.
• Matisse, who was very concerned about the long-term preservation of his
cut-outs, felt that this technique was a satisfactory answer to his needs.
The benefit of this technique was that the mounted cut-outs—even in
very large dimensions—could be safely stored, framed, and transported.
As the gouache surfaces were quite prone to abrasion from any physical
contact, Matisse wanted his works to be glazed. The drawback of this
process was that the cut-outs lost the dimensionality that they had when
still pinned to the walls of the studio.

16. STABILITY AND DETERIORATION
• When a viewer stands in front of a Matisse cut-out today, does
the work appear as it did when Matisse created it? Paramount
is the color stability of the gouache-painted paper shapes.
Scientific analysis has determined that each particular gouache
formula had its own stability: some colors are very stable and
some fade quickly in light. Within a given color—orange, for
example—there is a wide range of stability. Although Matisse
was aware that some colors were unstable—he had seen pink
and violet pieces fade in his own studio—he would not have
been aware of the long-term stability of all of the colors he was
using. As Matisse chose his gouache-painted papers, perhaps
some newly painted and some that he had saved, he would have
been introducing uneven color stability into his compositions.

17. COLOR AND LINE
• Throughout his career, Matisse searched for a way to unite the
formal elements of color and line. On the one hand, he was known
as a master colorist: from the non-realistic palette that earned
him the designation of a fauve or “wild beast” in the first decade
of the twentieth century, to the light-infused interiors of his so-
called “Nice period” of the 1920s, he followed a course of what he
described as “construction by means of color.” On the other hand,
he was a master draftsman, celebrated for drawings and prints
that describe a figure in fluid arabesque lines; “my line drawing
is the purest and most direct translation of my emotion,” he once
said. Through the cut-outs, he was finally able to unite these two
branches of his practice. He described the process of making them
as both “cutting directly into color” and “drawing with scissors.”

18. THE SHEAF
(1953)
Matisse’s cut-outs, as the exhibition reveals, were perhaps
the artist’s answer to his life-long probing of color,
drawing and form. His late collages and cut-paper pieces
virtually explode with vivid colors, and perhaps even more
vivid shapes, applying the painter’s skilled hand to the
scissors. The smooth lines and cuts of his forms belie
Matisse’s fascination with the painterly stroke, applied in
a series of fluid, gentle lines that bring vastly different
colors and forms into close harmony. Minimizing his
approach to its core elements, the cut-outs represent
Matisse’s final goal in perhaps its most cohesive manner:
a fusion of color and form through the effortless
movement of the artist’s hand. Even in the face of his own
failing health, Matisse was able to continue his work
towards a singular goal, breaking vastly new ground as he
went. http://artobserved.com/2014/08/london-henri-matisse-the-cut-outs-at-the-tate-modern-through-september-7th-
2014/

19. ICARUS
(1946)
As a pioneer in the graphic sense. The Fall of
Icarus (1943) at first appears stationary until you
realize that the central character is falling into the
picture, towards a watery grave behind, or more
accurately beneath, him. Constructed in the depths
of the second world war, the bursts of light could be
the detonations of bombs or alternatively the sun
repeatedly glimpsed as the mythical figure
tumbles, almost in a dance, to the sea. The latter
interpretation would suggest a manipulation of
time and space to match Matisse’s rival Picasso.
Intriguingly, the basic but evocative silhouette of
the falling figure, and indeed much of the design
work here, calls to mind the work of later artists
such as Saul Bass.
http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-
online/search/337069

20. • This bold and playful image is one of twenty plates Matisse created to illustrate his
groundbreaking book "Jazz." The illustrations derive from maquettes of cut and
pasted colored papers, which were then printed using a stencil technique known as
"pochoir." Here, the mythological figure Icarus is presented in a simplified form
floating against a royal blue nighttime sky. Matisse's flat, abstracted forms and
large areas of pure color marked an important change in the direction of his later
work and ultimately influenced "hard-edge" artists of the 1960s like Ellsworth Kelly
and Al Held.

21. THE SNAIL (1953)
Matisse was known throughout his life for his
daring use of color, and also as one of the
spearheads of Fauvism in France, the early
twentieth century movement of Modern artists who
created works using strong painterly qualities
alongside a rich use of color rather than the
representational values found in
Impressionism. At the end of his life, Matisse was
often bedridden and unable to paint. He thus began
working with his assistants on large-scale cut-outs
that incorporated his striking hues. The works
became his most important means of artistic
expression until his death in 1954.

22. THANK YOU