Henri Matisse: Cut Outs - Taschen

Towards 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 a longer period of time. 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 decoupées (gouache cut-outs) in fact represented a revolution in modern art, a whole new medium that re-imagined the age-old conflict between color and line. This fresh, standard TASCHEN edition of the first volume of our original prize-winning XL book provides a thorough historical context to Matisse's cut-outs, tracing their roots in his 1930 trip to Tahiti, through to his final years in Nice.

Marking the 60 year anniversary of Matisse's death and the major MOMA exhibit of 2014, this fresh edition of TASCHEN's original prize-winning XL volume provides historical context to the cut-outs, the revolutionary invention of Matisse's final years. With rare photographs of the artist by Henri Cartier-Bresson and F.W. Murnau, among others, and texts from Matisse, poets like Louis Aragon, and Matisse's son-in-law, Georges Duthuit.

Publisher: Taschen 2014

Dimensions: Height 15" x 11.5"