Henri Matisse
Michael Brenson reviews the monograph, Matisse, by Pierre Schneider, for the NY Times.
"...Mr. Schneider emphasizes Matisse's lifelong commitment both to the duality of human experience and to the need for synthesis. Like most other great modernists, Matisse wanted ''to do two things at once,'' ''to reconcile the irreconcilable.'' Almost from the beginning, he went in artistic search of a Golden Age - a time and place of joy and pleasure that would not be susceptible to the vicissitudes of history. At the same time, he always remained firmly rooted in the most immediate world around him...
...The textures of the everyday world were both his protection and the medium through which the fire (Color as a forceful pictorial presence of energy and expression.) entered his hands. Mr. Schneider believes that Matisse's work marks the decisive shift from art as mimesis (imitation) to art as methexis (participation). Matisse was convinced that by identifying himself with the objects he would touch ''the deep gravity which persists in every human being'' and arrive at the threshold of what was infinite and unknown..."
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