Louis Aragon, writer and close acquaintance of Matisse, compared Matisse’s collection of objects to a vocabulary - he felt that, like how a poet needs words to nourish his art, so too are these objects necessary inspirational props for Matisse.
Stories from the Studio
I find this incredibly interesting on a number of levels. It is clearly true that the aesthetic value of the objects that matisse was painting had a huge effect on the impact of his art. It is his point of reference that he builds upon, layers and layers of expression added through the application of paint. I had said before that the post impressionist still life painters were creating beauty from objects that were relatively mundane. I feel that the more I look at this work the more carefully considered it becomes. Yes these objects do have a qualities of being quite prosaic, after all they are objects found in the home but looking closer you can see the carful positioning and composition. Besides from the fruit which has a different sense of beauty, the rest of the objects are filled with strong characteristics that help define the work of Matisse. They do have a perceived uniqueness which I feel makes my own collages all that more strong. These are supposed to be Matisse’s household objects, that you would imagine as being one of a kind, but the realities that the internet has opened up the world of imagery and allow me to go in and find theses resemblance’s.
The relationship between the Matisse and his objects and me and my objects are profoundly different. He has this tangible, physical relationship that allowed him to move and positioning objects that you would imagine he'd interact with everyday. My relationship with the internet objects also allows me to move the objects and replicate the positioning but my interaction is wholeheartedly different. I am seeing these objects for flat images on a screen, my only real control is the image that I select and how it is manipulated in photoshop. The rest is already a set image that has been captured into data and has a distant existence that can be exhumed with a correct search term or web address or alternately uncovered by an exploration of through a set of links.
The vocabulary of Matisse allows his objects to transition from painting to painting, they reappear as a reoccurring motifs and become a part of a the language of the work and Matisse’s life. They even form the language of the titles of paintings. The pattern’s in the fabrics, the decoration on the sides of jugs and plates, the textures of the surfaces in his studio are the foundations of these paintings. This intern began the formation of matisse’s later work, and possible the inspiration for his cut outs. The representation in the painting is transformed through direct application of colour, broad brush marks form a new surface of the painting that moulds the objects into exquisite beauty.
Hélène Adant, who worked as an assistant in Matisse’s suitdio at Villa le Rêve, also shared a fascination with the objects that Matisse was painting. She began photographing the set up of the still life’s and created these fascinating images. They revel a layer behind the painting, these photographs completely remove the expression that Matisse had been adding, and instead show an image that is purely representational. This peak behind that curtain is very exciting for me, it is the image that i am trying to recreate through appropriation of other images. Despite this i find that these photographs are purely documentation and although they hold so much history within them they can never reach the elevate beauty that Matisse could reach with his brush.
I think that a vocabulary becomes very important in terms of the way we use imagery. Our language and communication has changed dramatically due to the internet. We can now repurpose images in order to express feeling or explain and support our textual communication nearly as quick as we can express them orally. The infiltration of technology is impacting our language on multiple levels. But just like Matisse's objects became his vocabulary, the images of the web are now ours. In Jodi Dean's essay 'images without viewers' she discusses the transition of language. She outlines five key areas of oral communication that become true to digital communication too.
- Ideas are combined via addition – and, and, and – rather than in a more qualifying, supporting, or hierarchizing fashion (“although,” “under certain conditions”);
- Repetition is frequent;
- Connection with actual experience, a shared lifeworld, is more compelling than analytical connection to an abstract field;
- Ideas express empathy and identification or their lack;
- Ideas are positioned as poles within a field of oppositions (for or against).
There are areas of this that are highlighted in my collages as well. The images that I've created take elements from multiple photographs that all have opposing contexts and purposes. Each object has been repurpose to fit my own desires and to match the paintings of Matisse's vocabulary. The are images and objects that have a familiarity with our own experience. A lemon or a table top is not a unfamiliar item but as all these elements are brought together they become saturated into this structure that creates a tangible outreach in an atmosphere of uncertainty. On their own these images are entirely different. They have alternate realities but the image has repeated from the image that Matisse saw in front of him, to the image that he painted, to the image that was uploaded online from which i am basing my collage, to the image that i have sourced in relation to resemble one one of Matisse's objects, to the appropriated image that exists in my work.
New Work
I would also like to introduce two new collages that I have been created. I feel that making more and more of these collages I am getting a lot more used to how they need to be constructed. Here we have two images that could appear very lifelike but deeper glance into the image reveals all these impurities. I feel that i am really starting to work well with the fabrics that were so important to Matisse's work. These are the hardest parts of the collages to find, and I have had to delve into some very heavy photo manipulation to create the flowing effect of the fabric that we can see in this last image.
I think that the way that all of these images have been formed are incredibly interesting, there are great amounts of difference to them. In their individual strive to to replicate an image that has become before produces to really different contrasts. This has all been dependant on the images that I can source and the qualities that these images are constructed from. I think that taking photographs from all of these separate locations starts to even out the overall aesthetic of the image. Overall we are experiencing something incredibly multifaceted and constructed through a homage to a painting that its self was created nearly a century prior.
New Work
I would also like to introduce two new collages that I have been created. I feel that making more and more of these collages I am getting a lot more used to how they need to be constructed. Here we have two images that could appear very lifelike but deeper glance into the image reveals all these impurities. I feel that i am really starting to work well with the fabrics that were so important to Matisse's work. These are the hardest parts of the collages to find, and I have had to delve into some very heavy photo manipulation to create the flowing effect of the fabric that we can see in this last image.
I think that the way that all of these images have been formed are incredibly interesting, there are great amounts of difference to them. In their individual strive to to replicate an image that has become before produces to really different contrasts. This has all been dependant on the images that I can source and the qualities that these images are constructed from. I think that taking photographs from all of these separate locations starts to even out the overall aesthetic of the image. Overall we are experiencing something incredibly multifaceted and constructed through a homage to a painting that its self was created nearly a century prior.
