Blue Nudes 1952

These "Blue Nudes" by Henri Matisse are made from paper cutouts; a process of making art by subtraction. The ultramarine paper practically vibrates against the creamy, layered background, a collage of different grounds and faint graphite marks. The shapes are pared down to essentials, and the eye is encouraged to complete the form, like an exquisite corpse that has been snipped into being. I love the tension between the flat color and the implied volume of the bodies. See how the figure on the left arches her back, a gesture of openness and vulnerability made graphic by the flatness of the paper. The right figure also strains backwards and you can see the paper torn at the top like it was yanked upwards. Matisse later made the chapel in Venice using similar techniques, where light itself became a material in his expanded collage practice, and he reminds me of a sculptor like Richard Serra, who treats metal with the same directness. It's all about material presence. Matisse is so playful and serious all at once.