Musicians 1921

Henri Matisse made this painting of two musicians in an interior. You can see the energy in how he’s applied the paint, right? It’s immediate, and loose. The materiality of this work is compelling. Look at the red of the wall hanging, how the ground is visible through the strokes and there are all these juicy, layered colors that make up the red itself. It’s as if Matisse is less interested in describing a scene than in exploring how different colours and marks can generate depth on a flat surface. Think about the woman on the left and the way her skirt is described with loose strokes of flat color. If you consider other artists from this period, like Bonnard, it’s clear painting was being used as a tool to play with perception itself. It’s about showing us that art is always a question of how we look, rather than simply what we see.