Henri Henri MatisseMatisse

Drawing With

Scissors

Henri was born in 1869. He grew up in a small town in

France. His parents wanted him to become a lawyer. He

tried that for awhile and became bored. He drew

flowers on his law papers!

Then one day, Then one day, Henri became Henri became

sick. He had to sick. He had to stay in bed for a stay in bed for a

long time. long time. His mother gave His mother gave

him him paints paints and brushes to give to give him something him something

to do. to do. That was it for That was it for Henri! He knew Henri! He knew he wanted to be he wanted to be

an an artist.

When Henri was 83 he made When Henri was 83 he made this paper collage picture.this paper collage picture.

Do you know what it is Do you know what it is supposed to be?supposed to be?

Even though Henri was a great painter, we are going to look at his collage pictures instead.

A Snail!

When Henri was an old man he made collage pictures. Since he was sick so often he had to spend lots of time in bed. It was easier to cut out pictures than use a paint brush!

He called his new way of painting, “Drawing with Scissors.”

Most of his cutouts are free-form. In free-form art, the shapes are irregular and not geometric.

SHAPE is an element of art! What other shapes do we know?

Geometric: straight edges and points: squares, rectangles, triangles or combinations! (circles and ovals are exceptions)

Organic: See in nature, more curvy! Another word is FREE FORM!

Abstract: Flattened shapes you recognize.

What kind did Matisse use most of the time?

Here’s how Henri made his cutouts:

1. First his assistants painted sheets of paper.

2. Then Henri cut out shapes.

3. Henri would change the way they were arranged on the paper.

4. The last step was to paste the cutouts down on paper.

When Henri was 73 he made 20 cutout pictures for a book called “Jazz.” Here are some pictures

from “Jazz.”

What kind of shapes do you see?

Matisse always tried to layer the pieces he cut out. Layer means placing one piece over another.

Even though Henri made most of his cutouts from bed, he used his memory to

get his ideas.

The book, “Jazz” is not about jazz music at all. It’s about Henri’s feelings about being an artist.

Henri was old and sick, but he kept on working. His daughter said that Henri worked right up to the day he died. People say some of his last cutout pictures are his greatest. Do you agree?

Icarus

Make your own Matisse Collage!

IDEAS: your name, a garden, a landscape, musical instruments, just shapes!

You need to LAYER!

You need a VARIETY of shapes in DIFFERENT SIZES!

ORGANIC AND FREE-FORM LIKE MATISSEor Abstract and Geometric

OR A MIX!