Cutting the Line: The Late Works of Matisse Discussed from a Merleau-Pontean Perspective

Although Henri Matisse first made use of the technique of cutting and assembling pre-coloured paper in the 1930s as a way of working out the composition of large-scale artworks, 1 commentators agree that it was during his last years of life as an invalid following a serious operation in 1941, that the creation of the cut-outs as independent artworks became his predominant artistic activity. “I now find the simplest and most direct way in which I can express myself is by cutouts,” he told Maria Luz in 1951. 2 Matisse spoke also of his pleasure in cutting: “A pair of scissors is a… wonderful instrument… working with scissors in this paper is an occupation I can lose myself in…. Why didn’t I think of it earlier?” 3 Notes: 1.For example, Dance, a mural commissioned by Dr. Alfred Barnes, Matisse’s foremost collector in the United States. 2.Matisse in interview with Maria Luz in 1951, recorded in Témoignages (published in 1952) and reproduced in Jack D. Flam, Matisse on Art, Oxford, Phaidon Press Ltd., 1973, p. 137. 3.Quoted in: Gilles Néret, Henri Matisse Cut-outs, Köln, Benedikt Taschen Verlag GmbH, 1994, p. 85