Interpreting Matisse Picasso [Paperback]

Elizabeth Cowling (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 3, 2002

This illustrated work provides an account of the evolving personal relationship between Matisse and Picasso, and in doing so it challenges the popular notion of intense rivalry between the two artists. The two first met in 1906 when Matisse had achieved recognition for his innovative Fauvist works and Picasso was poised to challenge for the leadership of the avant-garde. Though the pair were never intimate friends they maintained contact for the last twenty years of Matisse's life and their artistic relationship can be addressed through an analysis of a key group of their works. This volume discusses themes of the primitive, prompting differing responses in their art, and their common dependence on the Western figurative tradition. It goes on to explore their parallel development as leading sculptors and their unceasing invention in the field of collage. It further views the impact of their differing working methods, Matisse's reaction to Cubism and Picasso's preoccupation with brilliant colour and decorative pattern.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Tate (September 3, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810962586
• ISBN-13: 978-0810962583
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 8.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,730,237 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful analysis, June 2, 2003

By 

harsil (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Interpreting Matisse Picasso (Paperback)

This book is more than a handbook to go along with the recent Matisse/Picasso exhibition. It provides a lot of useful insights into the work of both artists, and by contrasting their approach and development, it brings out ideas about the nature of each. If you're like me and want your art history to focus on an analysis and understanding of what the artist was about and why his work is significant, you'll find this book to be very worthwhile. You'll come away from it knowing more about Matisse and Picasso than you did before, and your understanding of the works discussed will be deeper.

Having said that I found that the insights came thicker toward the beginning of the book than later on. I suppose that the interaction between the two was most intense when they were younger (the book progresses chronologically) and still developing than it was later on, when they had both developed their ideas more and were perhaps a little less jealous and competitive. The nature of their mutual influence simply changed over time, and the book reflects this. The last chapter, on Picasso's extended response to Matisse's death, is quite moving.

The book focuses very closely on the pictures in the show, and discusses them only as examples of this mutual influence. Sometimes this creates a slightly odd effect, as a painting is not analyzed in full, but only to the extent that it reveals the other's impact. One would sometimes like to know more about a painting than that, and to see it in a broader context; such is not the nature of the book, however.

These are very minor quibbles though, as the book is insightful and informative and contains some very good reproductions. It is also brief and briskly written, and I recommend it whether you've seen the show or not.