Henri Matisse exhibition poster

Abstract

This is a poster advertising a Henri Matisse exhibition. It features a a black and white Matisse print with signature in bottom right on a blue background. Below the piece in white, then black lettering: "MATISSE / DESSINS ET SCULPTURES / BERGGRUEN - 70, RUE DE L'UNIVERSIT� - PARIS / MOURLOT - IMP - PARIS". There is a small rip on the poster's left side. Creasing throughout. On back, in center of top third, blue in reads: "Matisse". Artist biography: Henri Matisse was a French artist, known for both his use of color and his fluid and original style. He was a printmaker and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter. Matisse is regarded, along with Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp, as one of the three artists who helped to define the revolutionary developments in the plastic arts in the opening decades of the 20th Century, responsible for significant progress for painting and sculpture. Matisse was born on December 31, 1869 and went to Paris in 1887 to study law. He started to paint in 1889 after an attack of appendicitis. He returned to Paris in 1891 to study painting and painted still lifes and landscapes in a traditional style. He was influenced by the earlier works of Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin and Edouard Manet, as well as Japanese art. Matisse and Andre Derain were the leaders of the Fauvist movement. The movement as such only lasted a few years, 1904-1908, and had three exhibitions. Matisse's first solo exhibition was at Ambroise Vollard's gallery in 1904, with little success. His fondness for bright and expensive color became more pronounced after he spent the summer of 1904 painting in St. Tropez. The decline of Fauvism after 1906 did not affect Matisse's career; many of his finest works were created through 1906 and 1917. In April 1906, Matisse met Picasso and the two became lifelong friends and rivals and are often compared. One key difference between them is that Matisse drew and painted from nature while Picasso worked from his imagination. Women and still life were common subjects for both artists, with Matisse using full and rich interiors as the background for his subjects.