“We were like children..."
Exploring Color and Intuition
"We were like children in the face of nature. We let our temperaments speak even to the point of imagination when nature itself could not speak."
This week I thought I would share some insights I got when I visited The met in NYC recently. Ideally, I like to quiet myself when I look at art. Crowded exhibitions can really be awful. I don't always need to step close to the art, but it is nice to have room to breathe, think and feel.
The quote above, is from Henri Matisse speaking of the nine weeks working with Andre Derian through the summer of 1905 in the Mediterranean village of Collioure.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition, "Vertigo of Color: Matisse, Derian and the Origins of Fauvism," peeled back Fauvism in a new way for me. I have always been a big fan of the relatively short-lived movement of Fauvism (1905–1908). How could I not? The color is stunning to this day. I like how it settles and unsettles me at the same moment. After seeing this show at the Met and watching the video from the curators, which I thoroughly enjoyed, I can see more clearly why it resonates with me.
Even though I initially thought that their time in Collioure was a time of experimental play for them, which it was to some degree, they both had ambitions to exhibit the work they created there. I don't know why I seem to assign master artists above ambition. Still, I was surprised to learn of Sargent's distinct ambitions when he painted Madame X. To me, it seems impossible that they struggled with getting noticed given their current status. I think it’s also interesting that “the establishment” had very negative responses to these artists while they were on their ambitious track.
Aside from that, Matisse used his watercolors and paintings as studies that would later be translated later once they returned back to their studios. Derian approached the work to the point of completion. This was an observation I didn't take in right away.
Watercolor, again, becomes a conduit for its portability and ease and I really liked how open Matisse works the medium. I wholeheartedly embrace this in a way I had not done previously. I show several examples of how using watercolor as a jumping-off point has worked for me in my studio practice in the Abstract watercolor course that I am offering paid subscribers. If you didn’t see the video I recorded about the course, the link is here.
"Nature took on hues responding to the artist's sensation rather than reality."
Letting color and sensation collide is exciting and can say much about the artists themselves. What are they choosing in the moment and why? I have been asked this often and sometimes I have a distinct answer and other times it is pure instinct.
It seems incredible now that people were angry when Derian and Matisse dared to paint red mountains! This outrageous use of color is why they were dubbed "the wild beasts.' But these beasts really paved the way for us as artists. Not just to misbehave by disrupting your color sensibility but to be daring enough to respond to their own unique sensibility, their emotional mindset.
Certainly, you can see how this opened the doors to not just the content of what was painted but also what the artist imbues to the work, the energy they bring.
Does that intuition and emotional energy stand the test of time? Again, Yes.
This is why I attempt to see art in person instead of only in print or digitally. It is wonderful that pieces from private collections are a part of this show.
Fortunately, I got to have space to soak in this art, learn more about its context, and be grateful for artists who paved paths for more individual expression, which we take for granted now as a natural part of an artist's process.
On a side note, I don't like it when art movements have a beginning and end; if you watch this video, you can clearly see the influences and layers this movement has on artists today, so why add an end date?
I’ll be taking a bit of time off in the next two weeks. If you have any questions about the course or the Archive Sale that runs until Wednesday, Dec. 20th, drop me a line!