Gray Dress with Violet Stripes 1942

Henri Matisse painted "Gray Dress with Violet Stripes" with oil on canvas. The marks are bold, and the colours are high-key, but they are not really descriptive. It’s like he's inviting us to see the world in a new way, through his eyes. The materiality of this work is so present, with the visible brushstrokes and the way the paint sits on the canvas. See how the orange stripes curve around the woman's dress, they’re not just lines, but gestures. And those vertical lines behind her are super alive, not just flat ornamentation. They kind of vibrate. Matisse is in conversation with artists like Cezanne, who was also obsessed with the structure, and how you can build form from just colour, but with that Matisse brings so much joy. For Matisse, and I agree, painting is a place for experimentation, for not knowing, and for embracing the unexpected.