Today, Sunday, I went to the MoMA. Me and the rest of NY. I will take note - Sunday is not the best day to visit museums around here. I went back because they are having a Matisse show. The entire 6th floor is full of his drawings and paintings and sculptures. Everything comes from a 3-4 period and the museum did an incredible job of writing things up in chronological order and used old photos and letters that helped you see the progression of where Matisse started and ended up in this short time.
It was good for me in that his work is really, really simple and minimal. He would spend years, sometimes, editing things down, going from bright bold colors to grays and blacks, using very little shading but mostly just flat, single colors in a black outlined area. There were a lot of little mono prints where he drew just single, simple strokes on a black background so it looked like a single white outline of an apple - one line, that's all. He also did a lot of scraping the paint off and painting over the top of full paintings with one color - letting only the impression of the painting underneath show through faintly, if you really looked.
So many different ways to do things. One thing my drawing teacher said - when is it a flaw and when is it a real choice? Sure love being here...
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