Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs – Hardcover

Edited by Karl Buchberg, Nicholas Cullinan, Jodi Hauptman, and Nicholas Serota. With contributions by Karl Buchberg, Nicholas Cullinan, Samantha Friedman, Flavia Frigeri, Markus Gross, Jodi Hauptman, Stephan Lohrengel, and Nicholas Serota

Published in conjunction with the most comprehensive exhibition ever devoted to Henri Matisse’s paper cut-outs, this book presents approximately 150 works in a groundbreaking reassessment of the artist’s colorful and innovative final years. From the late 1940s on, Matisse (1869–1954) increasingly adopted paper and scissors as his primary medium, creating lively compositions that are striking for their chromatic harmonies and economy of means.

Richly illustrated to show the cut-outs in all of their vibrancy and luminosity, this catalogue presents new research by curators and conservators exploring issues such as the artist’s materials and methods, the relation of these works to his larger practice, and their double lives- first as contingent and mutable in the studio and ultimately made permanent by mounting and framing. It also includes photographs of the works in progress in Matisse’s studios and five essays focusing on different moments in the development of this radical medium. 300 pp.; 315 illus.