My Kid Could Paint That

Henri Matisse, The Conversation, 1909

The Conversation has a simple title for such a complex work. Matisse juxtaposes the lush, lazy repose of the outdoors with stark confrontation, warmth with cold. The lack of defined facial expressions complicates the emotions, emphasizing other details of the two primary figures' appearances. Everything that can be different between them is different. Their sex, clothing color and quality, tension, and even their detail levels sharply oppose each other. As the painting supposedly reveals the relationship between the artist and his wife, perhaps the best way to begin to understand the painting is to learn about its maker.

Henri Matisse was born in a small town in France. He had a strict upbringing, and his parents expected him to become a successful lawyer. Matisse traveled to Paris for law school and passed the bar but soon decided to instead pursue art. Although he had initial difficulties with his dream (as he failed his first entrance exam for the national École des Beaux-Arts), he eventually entered into higher art schooling and explored many different styles, winning commissions. In 1898 he married his wife, a forward-thinking, economically-advantaged woman with whom he had little in common but a love of art. Matisse created The Conversation at the request of a Russian client, although the new owner's house was sacked during the Russian Revolution and the painting now hangs in the Hermitage.

The painting can be classified as a part of the Fauve movement, characterized by bold colors and broad brush strokes and movement that show a self-consciousness as a painting, independent from other mediums. This style gives Matisse leeway to explore different shapes and compositions while retaining unity throughout by controlling hues and textures.

Some art historians regard the seated woman as exemplary of old-fashioned portraiture, while Matisse appears more modern and geometric in form. Their lifestyles conflict more deeply than their appearances, a difference between wealthy elegance and lower class aspirations. And yet, neither Matisse nor his wife seems out of place in the piece. This painting represents unity between opposing lifestyles through a common love of art, the relieving of tensions in the pursuit of creative purpose.

Art for the Private Viewer
The Broad Usage of Sexual Figures in Art
Curated by Sree Balusu

Henri Matisse, Blue Nude, 1907

"Androgyny refers to a specific way of joining the 'masculine' and 'feminine' aspects of a single human being."--June Singer

This painting was met with complaints almost immediately. In 1913, during the an exhibition of the infamous "Armory Show" at the Art Institute of Chicago, it was burnt because it offended critics and viewers.  

Matisse painted Blue Nude after one of his sculptures depicting this figure shattered. When looking at the painting, one can see that though the subject is clearly a woman, it has certain male characteristics in its body form. Matisse did say, "What interests me most is neither still life nor landscape: it is the human figure."

According to some, Henri Matisse added the woman's muscular arms, thick neck, large feet, and short hair to create a painting of a subject that had his own form mixed into it.

One can also see a similarity between the subject's form in this painting and primitive art. For example, the large buttocks of the woman in this painting are quite like those of figures in cave paintings. Interestingly, the figures in said cave paintings were men, which further strengthens the notion that this figure is intentionally androgynous.

Using a uniquely constructed naked figure, Matisse managed to create an interesting fusion of Primitivism and Fauvism that became part of his collection of modern art.