"Matisse’s Open Window" [by David Lehman]

On Matisse's Birthday (December31)
Matisse’s Open Window

Do you believe that Matisse’s “Blue Nudes” (1952)

in its simplicity — one color, one fluid motion —

was easier to compose than his “Open Window” (1905),

a harbor of sails framed by the shutters

of his hotel room window in the bright fauve day?

Matisse didn’t have to think. He looked and knewt

he harbor is life, and blessed be the light

that results in such blossoms of color,

an exuberance that proves every seascape

is a lover’s state of heart. “Blue Nudes,”

a set of four lithographs, reflects Matisse’s “cut out”

method of composition, paper on paper, blue on white,

no paint at all. With this in mind, which

would you say was the more avant-garde?

https://www.literarymatters.org/16-1-three-aesthetic-questions/

Comments

[Ro]

Blue nudes