Continuing the Art of Play
April 8, 2026
Artist: Henri Matisse
Paper cutouts
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Matisse - The Cut Outs
During the last decade of his life, Henri Matisse deployed two simple materials—white paper and gouache—to create works of wide-ranging color and complexity. An unorthodox implement, a pair of scissors, was the tool Matisse used to transform paint and paper into a world of plants, animals, figures, and shapes.
Warm-up + Project:
We are revisiting Henri Matisse this week in conjunction with the wonderful exhibit currently at The Art Institute of Chicago, "Matisse‘s Jazz: Rhythms in Color".
The phrase, "painting with scissors," captures the essence of the energy, play, and freedom Matisse embodied as he created large and small works beginning in the 1940s.
Materials and Idea Starters:
Shapes (you may want to create your own from cardboard or cardstock to trace on your paper and cut out)
Geometric - squares, circles, rectangles, oval
Botanical - Leaves, flowers,
Organic - squiggles
Papers (to use for your cut-out shapes)
Construction paper
paint your own solid colors (8.5 x 11)
Solid white substrate to build your finished artwork on
Glue stick and Scissors
You may want to consider putting on a favorite musical selection for inspiration as well: movement, energy, color, rhythm!
Matisse's studio, Paris, with the cut-outs Oceania, the Sky and Oceania, the Sea joined by a band above the doorway
The Horse, the Rider, and the Clown from Jazz, 1947
Blue Nude (I), 1952
Violet Leaf on Orange Background (Palmette)
Composition Green Background, 1947; gouache, cut papers and pencil on paper; 41 x 15 7/16 inches
The Codomas
On Display
MoMa
MoMa
Tate Modern
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