Books by John Klein
Matisse and Decoration
by John Klein
A brand new look at the extremely beautiful, if underappreciated, later works of one of the most inventive artists of the 20th century
Between 1935 and his death at midcentury, Henri Matisse (1869–1954) undertook many decorative projects and commissions. These include mural paintings, stained glass, ceramic tiles, lead crystal pieces, carpets, tapestries, fashion fabrics, and accessories—work that has received no significant treatment until now. By presenting a wealth of new insights and unpublished material, including from the artist’s own correspondence, John Klein, an internationally acclaimed specialist in the art of Matisse, offers a richer and more balanced view of Matisse’s ambitions and achievements in the often-neglected later phases of his career.
Matisse designed many of these decorations in the innovative—and widely admired—medium of the paper cut-out, whose function and significance Klein reevaluates. Matisse and Decoration also opens a window onto the revival and promotion, following World War II, of traditional French decorative arts as part of France’s renewed sense of cultural preeminence. For the first time, the idea of the decorative in Matisse’s work and the actual decorations he designed for specific settings are integrated in one account, amounting to an understanding of this modern master’s work that is simultaneously more nuanced and more comprehensive.
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Matisse and the Sea
by John Klein, Simon Kelly, Ellen McBreen
Matisse and the Sea offers a new approach to the understanding of the important painting, Bathers with a Turtle, exploring, for the first time, the seminal role of African sculpture in the evolution of the painting. The book reexamines the significant connection with Cezanne, and provides fascinating new information on the afterlife of the picture.
Matisse and the Sea focuses on the Saint Louis Art Museum's iconic painting, Bathers with a Turtle. The exhibition catalogue brings together related works by Matisse in a range of media (paintings, sculptures, ceramics, drawings, prints, textiles, paper cutouts) and objects that influenced the picture, including African sculpture and painting by Cezanne. It also includes revealing new conservation analysis. The book examines two themes related to Bathers with a Turtle. First, the evolution of the picture, exploring Matisse's appropriation of a range of sources as he sought to develop an experimental and novel visual language. The second examines the afterlife of the picture, looking at its impact on Matisse's later imagery of bathers and the sea, as well as its collector and exhibition history in Germany and the USA.
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