Matisse – The Circus, 1947
It is easy to be inspired by Matisse. Seeing Henri Matisse the Cut-Outs exhibit at MOMA, the exuberance of color, the freedom of forms — you want to be able to paint like that. The later rooms with the wall-sized works, and especially the photographs of how his studio was so full of this art as he created it — you want to live in rooms like that. I walked out of the exhibit wanting to play with color, to hold it in my hand and create pure forms with it as he did. Even if you don’t like Matisse, you have to be inspired by the absolute passion he had for creating art, so undeniable that it that led him to invent a new way to make art when he could no longer paint. 
Chapter 10 of my book is titled “Matisse’s Cat”, in reference to the inspiration I draw from these struggles of great artists to find a way to satisfy that passion, and Matisse particularly because he spoke of the struggle, and left us evidence of his explorations and battles with line and form and color. I was writing about my own struggles to develop new cat face designs, particularly one based on a statue at the Bronx Zoo of a puma coming down a cliff, and in this iteration I had simplified the puma shape so much that it reminded me of a Matisse cut-out, and that encouraged me to loosen my hold on the realistic image and pursue it’s essence instead. This is the encouragement I take from Matisse: aim for the essential.
Matisse — Blue Dancer
We paint faces mostly with pure color. You might do blending in the sponge work, but then the imagery on top is usually solid colors with minimal shading — so the Cut-Outs relate directly. In adapting the Cut-Out figures to a face you have the additional playfulness of trying to fit his forms to the shapes of the face, which becomes an exercise in the fundamental skill of placing a flat image over the curves of the face. And I do mean “exercise” — I learn more about painting faces when I try to imitate the Cut-Outs.
The Rumanian Blouse 1940
Matisse’s painted portraits also adapt well, as he worked often with flat areas of pure color and precise linework. Strong colors and clean linework make for effective faces.
Face Gallery (Body Paintings below) ——————————————
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- stained glass window
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- The Fall of Icarus
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- girl at the exhibit
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- Icarus
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- face by Jenn
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- Blue Nude IV
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- The Dance I 1909
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- from Red Fish 1911
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- The Dream 1939
at FABAIC 2011
Matisse-Icarus 2011
Matisse-Icarus 2011
Matisse Remix 2008
Portrait of the Artist’s Wife, 1912
Red Fish 1911
Matisse Remix 2008
Matisse Remix 2008
And finally, here’s a lovely example from a colleague, Raphaelle Fieldhouse.
Matisse Inspired bodypainting by Raphealle Fieldhouse
Related articles
- Modern Primitive Art – body painting explorations of the origins of modern art
- StoryFaces and Body Painting at NYSATA 2013 (thestorybehindthefaces.com)
- Mythic Faces at the Hudson River Museum
- Science On Your Face — World Science Festival 2014
- Artsy’s Henri Matisse page
My introduction to this Mexican fusion of death and beauty came via the mummies of Guanajuato when I was there as a student in the 80s. In 2001 I had the opportunity to return to Guanajuato as part of the Festival International Cervantino, painting faces in the street as one of a number of international performance artists. A few days after the festival ended, just before I had to leave, the center of the town was filled with stalls of the artisans creating items for the coming Dia De los Muertos. I bought this mask, and felt really great when the woman who sold it recognized me as a fellow artist for the facepainting I’d done in those plazas the week before.
I approach the Day of the Dead as a celebration of the presence of death within life, and the continuation of life within death through the love we retain for those who have passed. I want to retain stark images of death in the faces I paint, and for inspiration I look less to the current sugar skull style and more to traditional imagery such as Posada’s La Catrina and Mexican skeleton figurines.
