Matisse. Les papiers decoupes. 40th Ed.

Description

Toward the end of his monumental career as a painter, sculptor, and lithographer, an elderly, sickly Matisse was unable to stand and use a paintbrush for long. In this late phase of his life-he was almost 80 years of age-he developed the technique of "carving into color," creating bright, bold paper cut-outs. Though dismissed by some contemporary critics as the folly of a senile old man, these gouaches decoupees (gouache cut-outs) in fact represented a revolution in modern art, a whole new medium that reimagined the age-old conflict between color and line. This edition of the first volume of our original award-winning XXL book provides a thorough historical context to Matisse's cut-outs, tracing their roots to his 1930 trip to Tahiti and continuing through to his final years in Nice. It includes many photos of Matisse, as well as some rare images by Henri Cartier-Bresson and the filmmaker F. W. Murnau, with texts by Matisse, publisher E. Teriade, the poets Louis Aragon, Henri Michaux, and Pierre Reverdy, and Matisse's son-in-law Georges Duthuit. In their deceptive simplicity, the cut-outs achieved both a sculptural quality and an early minimalist abstraction, which would profoundly influence generations of artists to come. Exuberant, multi-hued, and often grand in scale, these works are true pillars of 20th-century art, and as bold and innovative to behold today as they were in Matisse's lifetime. About the series TASCHEN is 40! Since we started our work as cultural archaeologists in 1980, TASCHEN has become synonymous with accessible publishing, helping bookworms around the world curate their own library of art, anthropology, and aphrodisia at an unbeatable price. Today we celebrate 40 years of incredible books by staying true to our company credo. The 40 series presents new editions of some of the stars of our program-now more compact, friendly in price, and still realized with the same commitment to impeccable production. Sur la fin de sa prodigieuse carriere de peintre, sculpteur et lithographe, age et malade, Matisse ne pouvait plus tenir sur ses jambes ni garder un pinceau en main tres longtemps. Au soir de sa vie, a pres de 80 ans, il mit au point une technique consistant a "sculpter la couleur", creant d'audacieux decoupages aux couleurs vives. Meme si quelques critiques de l'epoque y virent un signe de senilite, ces gouaches decoupees representaient en realite une revolution dans l'art moderne, en proposant un tout nouveau mode d'expression qui reformulait l'antagonisme traditionnel entre dessin et couleur. Cette nouvelle edition du premier volume de notre ouvrage format XL d'origine, recompense par la critique, retrace le contexte historique des gouaches decoupees de Matisse, depuis leurs origines, lors du voyage a Tahiti de l'artiste en 1930, jusqu'aux dernieres annees de Matisse a Nice. Elle comprend de nombreuses photos de l'artiste, dont quelques images, tres rares, signees Henri Cartier-Bresson ou du realisateur F.W. Murnau, ainsi que des textes de Matisse, de l'editeur E. Teriade, des poetes Louis Aragon, Henri Michaux et Pierre Reverdy, et du beau-fils de Matisse, Georges Duthuit. A travers leur simplicite trompeuse, ces decoupages ont a la fois atteint une qualite sculpturale et amorce une forme d'abstraction minimaliste qui a profondement influence des generations d'artistes ulterieures. Exuberantes, ces oeuvres aux mille nuances, souvent tres grandes, forment un pilier de l'art du XXe siecle et s'averent, quand on les contemple aujourd'hui, tout aussi audacieuses et novatrices que du vivant de Matisse. A propos de la collection TASCHEN fete ses 40 ans?! Depuis ses debuts en 1980 comme denicheur de tresors culturels, TASCHEN a toujours ete synonyme d'editeur accessible permettant aux devoreurs de livres du monde entier d'imaginer leur propre bibliotheque dediee a l'art, a l'anthropologie et a l'erotisme pour un prix imbattable. Nous fetons aujourd'hui 40 ans de livres incroyables en restant fideles au credo de la maison. La collection 40th Anniversary Edition presente de nouvelles editions de quelques-unes des stars de notre catalogue: plus compacte, a petit prix, mais toujours realisee avec la meme garantie d'une qualite irreprochable.

Xavier-Gilles Neret teaches philosophy of art and design at the Ecole Duperre Paris and University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne. He studies the connections between art, philosophy, and poetry. His publications include works on Bernard Saby, Daisuke Ichiba, Pakito Bolino, Anne van der Linden and a theoretical essay on graphzines. He lives and works in Paris. Gilles Neret (1933-2005) was an art historian, journalist, writer, and museum correspondent. He organized several art retrospectives in Japan and founded the SEIBU Museum and the Wildenstein Gallery in Tokyo. He directed art reviews such as L'OEil and Connaissance des Arts and received the Elie Faure Prize in 1981 for his publications. His TASCHEN titles include Salvador Dali: The Paintings, Matisse, and Erotica Universalis.

An inspirational and ever relevant volume about an inspirational and ever relevant artist. * San Francisco Book Review * A rare and outstanding symbiosis of book art and art book. * Der Standard *