Henri Matisse 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954 Clarkston High School Visual Arts Department Ms. Webb and Ms. Nguyen

Matisse is a French artist, known for his use of color and his fluid and original art style. Although he is mostly known for his paintings, his use of color and shape is especially apparent in the paper cutouts he made late in his life.

Matisse used flat shapes and bright colors in his artwork. Henri Matisse began his working life doing administrative tasks for a court. As a gift, his mother gave him his first art supplies and he fell in love with painting. He loved color and used it in his paintings. Here are two examples of his painting style called Fauvism. The word Fauves means “Wild Beast” Matisse used flat shapes and bright colors in his artwork. Above are two of his paintings.

Matisse’s artworks transform throughout his life.

In 1941 Matisse was diagnosed with cancer and, following surgery, he started using a wheelchair.

“Drawing with Scissors”. Matisse cutting paper for a collage; “Drawing with Scissors”. By the end of his life Matisse was thoroughly interested in patterns and from this interest came his collages. When he was not able to see well, he made collages from boldly hand-painted paper cut into shapes. Matisse’s collages were usually large works of simplicity. A collage is a technique of composing a work of art by pasting on a single surface various materials not normally associated with one another, as newspaper clippings, parts of photographs, theater tickets, and fragments of an envelope. Matisse created a technique called “Drawing with Scissors”. He cut his shapes without drawing them first.

With the aid of assistants he set about creating cut paper collages, often on an enormous scale. By maneuvering scissors through prepared sheets of paper, he inaugurated a new phase of his career.

Matisse created a book, Jazz, illustrated with collages.

Henri Matisse "Icarus" (1947) "Icarus" is a mixed-media collage .

Your Assignment: Create a cut-paper collage using the “Drawing With Scissors” technique. Use free-form shapes or a combination of geometric and free-form shapes. Use overlapping to create a sense of space and add interest. Do not use only geometric shapes. Do not draw your shapes first.