Two Girls, Red and Green Background 1947

Henri Matisse made this painting "Two Girls, Red and Green Background" with oil on canvas. He’s a master of color, and here he’s using it to create a kind of flattened space where everything feels equally important. Look at the way he’s built up the surface, layer by layer. It’s like he’s pushing and pulling the paint around, trying to find the right balance. It’s interesting, the way the background seems to come forward, almost as if it's part of the same plane as the figures. Notice how the red of the table and background clashes with the green of the stylized landscape behind. Matisse isn’t trying to trick you into thinking this is real, he’s showing you a new way to see. Matisse reminds me of Morandi, both were interested in exploring the relationship between objects and space, and in finding beauty in the everyday. Art is a conversation, right? There’s no one right way to interpret a painting, and I love that.