other artists

• Ana Mendieta
• Francis Bacon
• Hiroshi Sugimoto
• Alexander Calder
• Willem de Kooning
• Jean Dubuffet
• Alberto Giacometti
• Henry Moore
• Gerhard Richter
• Auguste Rodin
• Ed Ruscha
• David Smith
• Ellsworth Kelly
• Nikki Lee
• Man Ray
• John Baldessari
• Arshile Gorky

in depth: Henri Matisse

Best known for his brilliantly colored paintings, Henri Matisse (French, born Le Cateau-Cambrésis, 1869–1954) worked in various media, including printmaking, paper collage, and stained glass. Beginning in 1899 he turned seriously to the figure as a painting subject and also started to sculpt. From that time on, the body—usually female—became his primary subject in all media.
 
Matisse was predominantly a painter who used sculpture to define and clarify his ideas. The results, beneficial to both media, often led to pairs or series of sculptures that explored variations on a theme. These works show the way in which Matisse balanced the sensuous with a disciplined analysis of substructure. His focus continually returned to sinuous curves, countered by other curves centered around a vertical or horizontal axis.
 
Matisse initially emulated, then challenged, the aesthetics of Auguste Rodin—the dominant sculptor at the time—by using the same subjects and poses while subtly altering the dynamics. Matisse rejected Rodin’s emotional and heroic struggle, wanting instead to present vital yet controlled energy. Fusing many sources—including antique sculptures, Renaissance art, West African sculptures, and contemporary photography—Matisse created highly individualized human images in a mix of primitivism, classicism, and elegant stylization.
 
Adapted from The Human Figure Interpreted: Modern Sculpture from the Hirshhorn Museum (1995), by Valerie J. Fletcher.