The Simple Joy of Elemental Creativity

Andrea here, Just the other day, I was brainstorming with a good friend about about her elderly mother and the challenges of keeping her spirits up as aging restricts the things she can do. Her mother is an artist, who did very meticulous and detailed (and wonderful!) collages out of found paper throughout her career. But her eyesight and manual dexterity are not what they used to be, and so she doesn’t get up with the same verve to embrace the day as she once did.
 
It got me to thinking . . . and an idea occurred to me. I’m a huge fan of Henri Matisse’s paper cut-out collages, which he began in later life when the rigors of painting became too much of a physical challenge. Their bold colors and exuberant simplicity are wonderful—he called them drawing in paper. So I showed them to my friend and suggested that a simple pair of big scissors and an assortment of bright colored paper might rekindle her mother’s artistic eye—and be easy enough to handle that it wouldn’t be discouraging.

She loved the idea and has just placed an order for art supplies to try with her mother. And given that February always seems the dreariest month of winter here in the northern hemisphere—one knows spring is coming, but the weather seems to take pernicious delight in being cold and grey every day—I thought I’d share some of Matisse’s wonderful art and its backstory.
 
In 1941, Matisse underwent surgery and after that was pretty much confined to his bed or wheelchair. With his creativity undiminished, he found a medium in which he could continue to explore and experiment with shapes, color and composition—colored paper! He loved that it made him think in a different way. Cutting paper was much quicker than painting, and allowed him to move pieces around and create compositions in a way that that he couldn’t do with pigment and canvas.
 
The flat colors also challenged him to see in a different way. Some critics dismissed the art as a silly reversion to childhood play. But Matisse’s contemporaries, including Picasso, were very excited by the work, seeing it as a thoroughly modern way to experiment with the age-old fundamentals of color, line and composition.
 
Many of the works are fairly small. But what I love is that he also envisioned what the simple shapes and juxtaposition of color could look like on a grand scale. Improvising to account for his lack of mobility, Matisse would have an assistant take the cut-outs he did with his scissors and move them around on a large background with a stick until he was happy with the placement. The piece would then be pinned in place and he would continue to add more shapes until he was satisfied with the final composition, which would then be glued down. Some of these large constructions are mural-size and fill a whole wall. Others have served as designs for soaring stained glass windows.

As the Museum of Modern Art said when they devoted a major exhibit to Matisse’s paper cut-outs: “A brilliant final chapter in Matisse’s long career, the cut-outs reflect both a renewed commitment to form and color and an inventiveness directed to the status of the work of art, whether as a unique object, environment, ornament, or a hybrid of all of these.”
 
Are you familiar with Matisse’s paper collages? What do you think of them? Are you inspired to get out your scissors and colored paper and give it a try?
 
 

Comments

[Kareni]

I had seen some of those pieces, Andrea, but I had not known their backstory. So, thank you for informing me this morning!

I hope that your friend and her mother will have a wonderful time making art together.

[Alice Mathewson]

Fantastic story about Matisse and his late art. The artistic urge to create is so necessary to those who have it (not me, but my daughter) that not being able to would be miserable. Another idea might be creating art on an iPad. This is David Hockney's chosen medium in his 80s https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/david-hockney

[Andrea Penrose]

So glad you enjoyed the backstory, Kareni. I love that Matisse kept seeing new ways to express his creativity. I love the exuberance of the paper cut-outs.

Thank you for your thoughts about my friends. She is very much looking forward to making art with her mother.

[Andrea Penrose]

Isn't it a wonderful story? Matisse is amazing.

And yes! I knew about Hockney's i-pad. There was a big Hockney exhibit in NYC at the Met, and I saw a bunch of his i-pad drawings. Really marvelous. He's another amazing creative talent who keeps experimenting and trying new things. Very exciting!

THank you for sharing the link!

[Binnie Syril Braunstein]

Andrea-I love Matisse's paper collages. Evergreen House in Baltimore (part of John's Hopkins University's libraries)
Has a theatre whose walks are filled with the collages. As soon as I saw the second image in your post, I immediately know what it was U'd seen it before. His collages bring me a feeki g of joy. I don't have the same emotional response to his paintings. Thanks for a most interesting post. I'm sure it will have people reaching for paper and scissors. And I think it's lovely how the conversation with your friend about Matisse's collages might provide her mother with the ability to once again engage in art. Kudos!

[Karin]

Yes, I'm familiar with Matisse's cutouts, and I'm sure I've seen them at MOMA. He had a great eye for color and design. Are you familiar with the Gee's Bend quilts? The cutouts remind me of them, with the abstract color blocks. This site has a nice sampling of the quilts. I am a big fan of quilts, so I go to every exhibit I can find. I saw the Gee's Bend quilts a couple of decades ago at the American Bible Society museum in New York, of all places!
https://www.soulsgrowndeep.org/gees-bend-quiltmakers

[Suzanne Askham]

What a lovely, creative thought for a grey winter's day! Some years ago there was a similar Matisse exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. For months afterwards my son, who has profound learning disabilities, and I had fun with our own cut-out pictures. IMHO the best art projects are the ones that make you happy....

[Annette N]

I have never had the joy of seeing the cutouts in person. I have seen illustrations and if the man was looking to inspire joy - with me he got it exactly right. I love every one I've seen.

I believe that art is a gift to all of us. Since we are all individuals who have different perspectives, art is different things to each of us.

I want to thank you for explaining the story of Matisse and his illness. It makes me believe that he had all this wonderful talent and terrific ideas and he could not hold things in. And aren't we all blessed that he had to express himself for us? I guess genius refuses to be hidden away.

[Camille Biexei]

I saw that exhibit at MOMA some years ago and was mesmerized. It enhanced my perceptions about color and art, which I particularly appreciated as an artist myself. Thank you for the reminder!

[Andrea Penrose]

Binnie, you hit the essence of the Matisse cut-outs—they have a joyful exuberance that I think all viewers sense. I think they do remind everyone of childhood, where there is a wonder at being delighted by simple things, without athe "filters" we begin putting on our reactions as we grow up.

Yes, I'm hoping my friend's mother will have fun with paper and scissors.

[Andrea Penrose]

Thanks for sharing, Karin! I didn't know this site. I love quilts too because they have the same simplicity, and also spark an appreciation of elemental creativity using simple shapes and color.

[Andrea Penrose]

What a lovely story Suzanne. Art has a magical ability to reach people who communicate in a different way than the norm. Art and creativity does spark joy—the simple act of creating is such a positive feeling.

[Andrea Penrose]

Annette, you are so right in that art and our response to it is very individual. But I think what we all have in common is that art—however we define it—does stir joy. The act of creating something is such a positive thing, and whether it's painting the Mona Lisa or cutting out simple shapes in colored paper, it's the same spirit.

And yes, Matisse was an artistic genius, and no matter his physical limitations, his creative mind found a way to express his creativity.

[Andrea Penrose]

So glad you enjoyed it, Camille. That's the magic of art—it really does make us see things in a new way, which is exciting and inspiring.

[Anne Gracie]

I've always loved Matisse's papercuts and I really enjoyed this blog, Andrea. I do think papercuts are undervalued by a lot of people.

One of my favorite childhood books was The Good Little Christmas, by Ursula Moray Williams, the first edition which my mother owned. All the illustrations were papercuts done by the author, and I still love it to bits. The next edition had illustrations that were much less ordinary and not nearly as exciting. There are some examples of the illustrations here — scroll down. https://www.letterpressproject.co.uk/inspiring-young-readers/2021-12-20/the-good-little-christmas-tree

I hope your friend's mother decides she loves making paper cuts.