Matisse in the 1930s by Affron, Matthew, Cécile Debray and Claudine Grammont (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Matisse in the 1930s by Affron, Matthew, Cécile Debray and Claudine Grammont Celina Vargas Affron, Matthew, Cécile Debray, Claudine Grammont, et al. Matisse in the 1930s. Yale UP, 2022. ISBN 978-0-87633-2993. Pp. 256. The Philadelphia Art Museum, collaborating with other institutions and academics has put together a well-articulated compendium of works and essays exploring the state of Henri Matisse’s career and personal life to accompany their exhibition. In the years preceding the 1930s, the reader meets a Matisse in crisis. Worries of artistic stagnation, of maintaining relevance, and of establishing a legacy weighed on his artistic process, and retrospective showings of his work signaled the public’s perception that the artist had reached the zenith of his career. It is the piece commissioned by and completed for the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Philadelphia, The Dance, that is often referred to as the watershed moment of a dynamic change in his process and compositions. Using photography to document his changes and cut-out pieces of paper to modify large areas of color helped him to push away from Fauvism and his odalisques into the greater expanses of Modernism. Although many think of Matisse as a standalone name, it is the importance of collaboration especially in The Dance that is reflected in this literature. Without the help of a housepainter named Goyo, and Matisse’s wife’s caretaker and Matisse’s model, Lydia Delectorskaya, The Dance would not have been possible as they both worked directly on the piece. Even beyond the hands-on work of those supporting Matisse in material production, others played important parts in this revitalization of his work. Christian Zervos, editor-in-chief of Cahiers d’art served as an advocate of Matisse and other artists such as Pablo Picasso by dispersing their imagery to the public. Names such as Zervos, Picasso, and Delectorskaya are inextricably tied to Matisse and continually evoked. The effect is that of a palimpsest of situations familiar and reiterative, copying that of Matisse’s developed painting style of erasing areas with turpentine and painting over them to achieve the desired outcome. Interspersed are the vibrant painted canvases, the carefully planned linework, and photographs by and of Matisse. Letters from Matisse to members of his family inform much of the accounts of the artist and give glimpses into the personality of an artist often seen sternly gazing at the camera lens. It has an overall humanizing effect and the problematization of Matisse’s work is relegated to a handful of essays as the compilation serves to celebrate the artist’s revitalization, rather than explore a success supported by an orientalist gaze. His travels to Tahiti and the United States are lauded as a turning point in his portrayal of women of the African diaspora, though at a time when his work saw a movement from easel picture to an increase in architectural painting. [End Page 216] Rather than a piece demanding “scrutiny in close proximity and with focused concentration,” these newer works looked for “the total integration of the image with its setting” (Affron 73). The irony is that these works transform from portraying the women as objects to then becoming one with an object. However, the richness and breadth of information makes this collection a salient resource on Matisse. [End Page 217] Celina Vargas University of California, Davis Copyright © 2023 American Association of Teachers of French