Nasturtiums with "The Dance" 1912

Curator: Instantly, there's an odd harmony...the raw vibrancy and crude depiction in such high saturation feels almost unsettling, no? Editor: We're looking at Henri Matisse’s “Nasturtiums with ‘The Dance’,” an oil on canvas he completed in 1912. The piece, now residing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, showcases Matisse's characteristic flattening of space. He uses impasto techniques. Consider also how he reintroduces and challenges his prior artwork in a metatextual exercise about making. Curator: Yes, the tension lies in that flattened perspective, those high-key colors bordering on discordant. Notice how the figures in the background--seemingly lifted directly from his earlier "Dance"-- are rendered in an almost childlike simplicity, contrasted against the still life of the vase with nasturtiums. Editor: Precisely, the juxtaposition prompts questions. What is the relationship between 'high art' and domestic object? Is he elevating the craft of painting to dance on par with the making of figurative representation? And what social meanings adhere to the flower still life tradition in the context of domestic space? Curator: It feels as if the vibrant materiality pushes us away, refusing entry into some kind of narrative space... Editor: While there's that push-and-pull of color and composition, I keep being drawn back to the vase, almost sculptural. It's situated on what is surely an artist’s table, yet somehow upstages “The Dance” behind. I read this not just as a visual experiment but as a study of modern visual consumption. Curator: A study in the visual culture of modernity. You've definitely given me some food for thought. Editor: Likewise. Examining these techniques allows for a clearer grasp on the cultural significance, as well. It speaks volumes about the social forces influencing Matisse and how he integrated and perhaps responded to them.