Monday, February 28, 2011

Matisse- "The Joy of Life"

Since we have a test Thursday, I think it is benifical if we discuss some of the art Mrs. Quinet showed us. This is Matisse's "Joy of Life"- He is using different colors that weren't normally seen during this time. This painting comes from the Fauvism period, which lasted from 1905 to 1907. Matisse's wide range of colors and interesting concentration made this painting purely his perspective. This painting was excatly what was going through Matisse's mind. The response to this painting was that critics thought Matisse was insane. What else do yall have to say about this painting?

8 comments:

chrissy said...

Personally, I really like this painting. The high energy colors he uses truly capture the excitement and joy of life. Such neon colors were probably radical for his time, but I admire his audacity and vivid view of life.

Chloe said...

This is a great example of Fauvist paintings. Matisse was a leader of Fauvism. This style of work usually included wild brush work and styles, along with brilliant colors (like Chrissy mentioned). Many critics view Fauvism as a blend of impressionism, expressionism, and pointillism. Matisse befriended Picasso early on, and the two often convened in Paris. Although both artists were criticized for their new styles, Matisse produced several nude works.

Olivia Celata said...

Matisse was also part of the French Expressionism movement. He focused on subjective reactions, instead of representing objective reality. Therefore, his creative imagination played a great part in making each piece of artwork. Also, although his figures appear relatively flat in "Joy of Life", Matisse played with perspective by making the people in the front larger and the others in the back smaller.

Samantha said...

Fauvism, also known as the Period of "The Wild Beasts," began in Paris in 1905 as a result of the dramatic color clashes and visual distortions of the French Expressionist painters. That year in the Paris Salon, an outraged critic saw a Matisse painting in the same general area of a classical-looking sculpture and claimed that the scene looked like "Donatello in a cage of wild beasts (or fauves)." This specific painting portrays a version of Eden through the perspective of a French Expressionist. It reminds me of Bosch's "The Garden of Earthly Delights."

Katherine said...

I really do like this painting too, Chrissy. As Samantha points out that Fauvism is also known as the period of "The Wild Beasts," I think that the alternative name for this time period perfectly correlates with Matisse's painting, "The Joy of Life." When I hear the term "wild beast" I think of exactly what this painting portrays. I think Matisse uses wild color and unexpected subjects because during this time artists wanted to surprise their viewers.

Steven said...

This was one of my favorite paintings from the Age of Anxiety too, actually. I find Matisse's painting approach intriguing: it appears to me as if he painted shapes of color first and then penned in lines, shape, and form afterward. It's almost as the object itself is an after thought and the emphasis on color portrays a positive light to life. I also find the contrast of this ring of people as opposed to the one from The Waste Land interesting. Does anyone else find the two strikingly different?

Blaine said...

Another Painting that I really enjoyed by Matisse was the Green Stripe. The Greeen Stripe is a portrait of Matisse's wife, Amelie. This painting was possibly the first of the fauvist paintings. In this painting, Matisse uses color alone to describe the image. The actually green stripe down Amelie's face acts a shadow acts as an artificial shadow and divides the lighter and darker halves of the face.

Astrid Midtbø said...

The term "Fauve" actually first comes from the critic Louis Vauxelles who wrote of the 1905 Salon d'Automne in Paris, of Henri Matisse: "He has courage, because his entry- and he knows it- will have the fate of a Christian virgin delivred to the wild beasts (=Fauves) at the circus. M. Matisse is one of the most robustly gifted of today's painters..."
The wild beasts actually was the critics