Equally matched
Matisse Picasso
Tate Modern
11 May to 18 August
£10 (£7 concessions)
CONTRASTING STYLES and technique, two of the greatest
artists of the twentieth century come together in Tate Modern's latest
blockbuster. The collaboration with museums from New York and Paris has brought
art never before seen publicly in Britain or exhibited together.
The premise of the exhibition is that Matisse and Picasso
interacted throughout their lives. Although they are typically characterised as
competitors, they were kindred spirits, united in their acknowledgement of one
another's ability. The evidence presented here is more than enough to prove the
curators' point. Picasso seems to concur: "You have got to be able to
picture side by side everything Matisse and I were doing at that time. No one
has ever looked at Matisse's paintings more than I; and no one has looked at
mine more carefully than he".
On show are intriguing combinations of work by Henri Matisse
and Pablo Picasso. A number of sculptures are included, but the emphasis is on
pictorial art. Immediately, we come face to face with the two protagonists in
the form of self-portraits painted in 1906, shortly after they first met.
Matisse, who usually portrayed himself wearing a suit and glasses, is in a
sailor's striped top, engaging the viewer, giving nothing away. Picasso gazes
into the middle distance, palette in hand, preparing himself to paint.
Sometimes particular works directly echo or confront the art
of the other artist. Picasso's Serenade (1942) refers to Matisse's Music (1939).
In both, a woman in blue on the right plays the guitar. On the left, an ochre
figure lounges. Music shows Matisse's impeccable use of colour and composition.
Vivid reds, deep blues, luscious greens. Serenade is in stark contrast. Cubist
forms and a dark, foreboding interior.
The question explicitly posed is whether this is artistic
opposition or a complementary re-working. It is often impossible to judge.
Matisse's The Italian Woman (1916) is presented in tandem
with Woman with a Fan (1908). Both their heads are slightly downcast. What
Picasso expresses with angular blocks of colour, Matisse achieves by other
means. The Italian Woman is a simplified figure, her arms delineated by a thin
black line. There's sadness in her expression - introspection. The bold, oval
eyes are reminiscent of Picasso. Her hair falls straight, a sharp divide, an
effect achieved in the Woman with a Fan by the line of her dress and shadows.
Very different styles and technique are employed to convey similar moods.
Some of the examples presented are more tenuous. The claim,
for example, that Picasso's Still Life with Pitcher and Apples (1919) recalls
the Bowl of Oranges painted by Matisse three years earlier is stretching a
point.
This is a very human exhibition, portraying a complex
interaction between these two artists. Certainly, the ten years following their
first meeting in Paris are characterised by intense rivalry. Matisse, in his
mid-thirties, was the principal figure in the French avant-garde. He was leading
the 'fauvist' movement, which incorporated striking use of primary colours to
suggest movement and vitality alongside a rough-hewn, unfinished quality. It can
be considered as a natural extension of impressionism, but its energy and
spontaneous look, inspired by the clear light of the Mediterranean, caused a
sensation. Picasso, twelve years younger, was the exciting and brash new
prospect - recently arrived from Spain - beginning to break through onto the
international stage.
This power struggle for artistic supremacy included many
canvas-to-canvas clashes and encounters. Picasso would regularly deride Matisse
as an 'interior decorator'. Matisse would accuse Picasso of stealing his ideas,
denouncing him as 'a bandit waiting in ambush'. Nevertheless, it was at the very
start of this period that Matisse is said to have introduced Picasso to African
art, a key element in his development of cubism with Georges Braque from 1908
onwards.
There is some truth in the characterisation of Matisse as
the specialist in colour, with Picasso in the role of draughtsman. Matisse's
reflection, sophistication and introversion - he kept his personal life private
- are contrasted with Picasso's extrovert raw energy - his art was a riotous
autobiography of sensuality. But this is only part of the story. They reacted to
each other's work, adapting it to their own style. Out of that, something new
would be created.
It is a complex relationship. Both artists were living in
France and stood shoulder to shoulder - often literally - as the leading artists
of their time for nearly 50 years. There was a profound mutual respect. They
taunted, challenged and inspired each other. They met. They talked. They swapped
their works of art.
The first cubist paintings by Picasso and Braque were, in
the main, sombre, often monochrome. Matisse was not a cubist but helped bring
colour to the movement. He criticised cubism in general as being too
mathematical and unemotional. On the other hand, he recognised that it was an
important movement which he should understand and comment on. As a result,
Matisse applied its principles, moving away from traditional perspective,
flattening and compressing the visual effect.
Piano Lesson (1916) is a key work on this route, a
master-class in how colour can be applied without destroying the cubist
perspective. It seems to have caught Picasso's attention and marks the beginning
of a new-found respect for the older artist. Before Matisse, Picasso and Braque
had been introducing colour tentatively, most effectively in their collages.
After Matisse, Picasso produces more decorative cubism, as seen in Three
Musicians (1921).
Their different temperaments are graphically illustrated in
their treatment of African art, especially sculpture. They were both heavily
influenced by it but Matisse takes a more measured approach. He assimilates it,
bringing it under his control. Picasso dives in at the deep end, revelling in
its physicality and power. It fit the cubist bill perfectly. The facial features
of Picasso's Nude with Raised Arms (1907) - if not the pose and composition of
the painting - is typical of Picasso's early African-inspired cubist work.
There's the trademark over-sized oval head, a shape repeated in the prominent
eyebrows and eyes, and dark shadows across the face.
Matisse was also attracted by Islamic art and its use of
rich, decorative colour. In it he discovered what was, at first sight, an
unlikely connection with cubism. Above all, the flattened perspective was a
common theme. Although flat, Islamic art put across a lot of spatial
information, using the whole canvas to full effect. Matisse's The Painter's
Family (1911) is a prime example. Two central figures are playing chess, a woman
is standing, another sits on a sofa. There's a fireplace, carpets and furniture.
It is remarkable how so much detail can be included without perspective depth.
And all of it in exquisite colour. This contrasts with Picasso who, at that
time, concentrated all his energies on the subject, leaving an undefined
background in the shadows.
The first Matisse/Picasso exhibition was in 1918 in Paris.
But ever since their first meeting, their paths continued to cross right up to
Matisse's death in 1954. In 1920, Diaghilev's Russian ballet company
commissioned both artists to design sets and costumes for different music on the
same programme. In 1930 Matisse was on the jury which awarded Picasso the
prestigious Carnegie Prize, which he had won himself three years before.
Following the outbreak of the Spanish civil war, Matisse and
Picasso signed declarations supporting the Spanish republican movement and
contributed to fundraising events for refugees. During the second world war,
Picasso remained in Nazi-occupied Paris, under close surveillance which included
regular intrusions into his studio. Matisse was in Nice, his wife and daughter
working for the Resistance in Paris. Although he was relatively safe in the
South, he underwent a near-fatal operation for duodenal cancer in 1941 which
affected him physically for the rest of his life.
Picasso's connection with surrealism and Matisse's hostility
towards that movement, exacerbated by the geographical divide, meant that the
two artists drifted apart in the war years although some contact was maintained
via mutual friends. After the war the two artists made up for lost time. Picasso
settled in Vallauris, not far from Nice, and they entered the closest phase of
their relationship.
The exhibition ends with a remarkable cross-over between the
two artists, bringing the premise of the exhibition to its logical conclusion.
More than two decades separate Picasso's Acrobat (1930) and Matisse's Flowing
Hair (1952). The Acrobat is an oil painting. Limbs fill the frame with tumbling
dexterity. The dance-like movement of Flowing Hair is made from cut paper. Since
the onset of cancer, Matisse found it increasingly difficult to paint or tackle
intricate work. He wielded a pair of scissors instead, his physical limitations
could not prevent him from producing pictures of elegant beauty.
Picasso produced sheet-metal sculptures in 1954 just before
Matisse died. These strongly parallel Matisse's paper cut-outs, especially as
the production process involved the use of card models. But Matisse's designs
were also intimately bound up with the early cubist collages of Picasso, nearly
50 years earlier. And that is the point. They reached the pinnacle of artistic
achievement via different routes. But the reference and cross-reference was a
permanent feature. It is not that every picture or sculpture was automatically
linked with some piece by the other artist. But they knew one another's work
intimately. Sometimes one would trigger strong positive or negative reactions in
the other. They fed off each other.
Near the end of his life Matisse wrote to Picasso that
"we must talk to each other as much as we can. When one of us dies there
will be some things the other will never be able to talk of with anyone
else". Fittingly, this statement has also been attributed to Picasso.
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