Matisse had not been an artist as a child. In fact, he showed no interest in art until, bedridden with appendicitis, his mother gave him a set of paints. That was all it took. "Once bitten by the demon of painting, I never wanted to give up," Matisse said later. He abandoned his career as a law clerk, and went to Paris to study art. Matisse studied at several different art schools before, at age twenty-five, he set out to make his own living from his art. His wife set up a hat shop, and the Matisses lived above the shop.

In 1905, Matisse became the leader of a group of painters called the Fauves, which in French meant the "wild beasts." It is ironic that this gentle painter would be labeled a wild beast, but it is said that Matisse was rather proud of the title. They were called Fauves because critics thought their paintings were uncontrolled in their use of intense color and wild lines. As with van Gogh, Matisse used complementary colors to highlight their intensity.

In this painting to the left we can see some of Matisse's techniques. He places complementary colors next to each other to maximize intensity, such as the purple coat against the yellow blanket, and the green plate next to the red apples. His ideas of perspective leave the viewer purposefully off balance. The woman seems to be sliding off the couch, the plate seems to be mounted on the wall rather than sitting on a table. His paintings are purposefully flat, void of any three-dimensional attributes.

In the years that follow this painting, Matisse traveled widely. He spent most of every summer in the sunny Mediterranean town of Nice (pronounced "niece"). Matisse was intrigued with colorful patterns and collected fabrics, ceramics, and rugs from all of his travels. He used many of these objects in his paintings.

Matisse continued painting, despite two world wars. After the occupation of Paris by the Nazis was over, Matisse returned to that city at the age of 60. Matisse began his cutout projects when his hands were too aged for painting. The light and clarity of these images, brightened by the return of joy in the postwar era, are mixed with the anxiety of Matisse’s physical handicaps. In Paris, he started on a series of collages he called Jazz. This series of paper cutouts used bright colors and abstract shapes to convey their meaning. Like the music, Jazz is unpredictable, yet beautiful. Perhaps the best known collage of the Jazz collection is Icarus, which is based on the Greek myth.

In the legend, the boy Icarus and his father, Deadulus, are trapped on an island by the king as a punishment for disloyalty. Deadulus fashions wings to escape, made from feathers and wax. Although the father tells his son not to get too close to the sun, Icarus doesn't listen. His wings begin to melt in the heat of the sun, and he falls into the sea. This then, to the right, is a picture of the disobedient son, as interpreted by Matisse, falling to earth.

Icarus, Henri Matisse, courtesy Artchive

Materials Needed:

construction paper (blue, black, and yellow)

scissors

glue

Criteria You'll Be Graded On:

1. Must have three or five figures in action.

2. Must have an odd number of stars (1,3,5,7...)

3. Craftsmanship (your figures and stars look carefully cut out, nothing sticking up)

4. Looks like you've put time and effort into the project.

5. You can tell what each figure is doing.

6. Figures vary in size to create visual interest.

Step 1: Find three or five (odd number) images of figures in action. Make different sizes to make your picture more visually interesting! You can use a scanner, Xerox machine, or graphic program to do this. You can get pictures from the Internet, clip art, magazines, photographs, etc. I got the following pictures from the Internet. (Right click on pictures, left click on copy, then paste into your favorite word-processing program). Make sure the picture is recognizable and interesting as a silhouette!

Examples:

Someone playing football, volleyball, tennis, horseshoes, etc.

Someone throwing a Frisbee, javelin, softball, baseball

Someone holding a cat, dog, armadillo, or rat.

Step 2: Take your picture and put a piece of black construction paper behind it. Holding the two pieces of paper together, carefully cut around your picture.

Here's the finished product of Step 2.

Step 3: Cut out your stars just like you would a valentine. Fold a square shape piece of paper in half then cut on the non-folded edge. Don't try to make them perfect. No matching allowed :)

Step 4: Put all of your pieces together and play with the positioning on the paper. You can flip your figures over so that they face the opposite directing. Don't settle for your first layout! Notice how all my stars are different.

Step 5: Glue everything down neatly, so you don't end up with curled edges. Smear the glue on with a finger or Q-tip so you don't end up with big globs of glue.