Orange Expressive Evaluation sheet. NAME:

Visual Elements/ Aesthetics

Henri Matisse, “Icarus” (1944)(plate VIII from the illustrated book, "Jazz")Collage and "pochoir" (bits of painted paper)

Pablo Picasso “Weeping Woman” (1937) Oil on Canvas

Brief Description. Portrait of mythological figure Icarus. He flew on wings made of wax too close to sun and died.

Portrait of Picasso’s mistress Dora Maar (representing woman hehe met whose husband died in the bombing of Guernica).

line Matisse doesn’t use lines, there is only a sharp outline on the work to separate the colours. This gives the painting a bold blocky feel capturing a fleeting moment.

Picasso has used bold lines.The bold lines create an abstract portrait, helping to emphasise the distress felt by the woman.

tone The dark silhouette of the figure has a strong tonal contrast against the bright stars which creates drama and excitement.

The tone of the figure is similar to the blue background and the heart and stars are similar tones. This creates unity in the artwork.

Shape/ form The spiked shape of the stars creates a feeling of danger.

By making the figure of Icarus an irregular and angular shape he looks like a broken body.

By using bold shapes Matisse maintains a strong visual impact and has made a piece that is easy to read.

pattern The background creates a slight pattern through the repetition of the star shape, helping to break up the background.

Orange Expressive Evaluation sheet. NAME:

colour Matisse used primary colours ( blue, red and yellow) because it makes each colour pop out and look really bold. • The heart is red against a black body which is powerful because the bright red stands out against the dark black. The red heart shows that he is living still.• The black colour used for Icarus makes the figure look like a silhouette against a bright sky and black means death, hinting at what is to come.

Texture Limited amount of texture used in the piece so that the bold shapes come to the fore creating visual impact.

Painted paper gives a very subtle but rougher feel to the surface of the image providing depth.

Subject matter/imagery Icarus is a mythical character shown here falling to earth after flying too close to the sun (despite fathers warnings). His silhouette looks distorted and broken alluding to his death.

The quietly tragic mood is created by the solitary suspended and broken figure depicted in black.

Mood/atmosphere Matisse used collage and pochoir (painted paper cut and used for collage) the collage created sharp edges and the pochoir created opaque colour and texture

Mattise then handed the collage over to a specialist to

Orange Expressive Evaluation sheet. NAME: be printed for the book “Jazz” this created a sharp and vibrant image that was suitable for production

Scale 43 x 27 (16 1/2 x 10 1/4 in) made as a plate for the book “Jazz” so intended to be a large coffee-table book.

Style/Art Movement The Fauves wanted to change the appearance of reality by using strong colour and simplified images. Their work was very expressionist, which means that they used shape and colour to describe emotions and feelings, not to show reality. This can be seen in Icarus symbolic colour, the black meaning death and red the small amount of life left and the blue background for sorrow.

A strong feature of his fauve paintings is that the background is just as important as the still life objects or person. We can see in Icarus that Matisse was not trying to produce a realistic image, but a flat pattern in this background.

Composition/arrangement The stars scattered in the space around the figure emphasise the space rather than fill the space

There is a lack of depth in this image because the stars are very flat and all quite similar sizes.

Media handling/technique Matisse used collage and pochoir (painted paper cut and used for collage) the collage created sharp edges and the pochoir created opaque colour and texture.

Mattise then handed the collage over to a specialist to be printed for the book “Jazz” this created a sharp and vibrant image that was suitable for production.

Social & CulturalSelect ONE ARTIST

This subject matter of Icarus was chosen by Matisse because he was recovering from a stroke and deeply felt his own mortality. The

Pablo Picasso:

2 x state influences =

Orange Expressive Evaluation sheet. NAME:

Make 2 points. You must link these in with the painting you have written about.

image captures the tragedy of mans fragile life.

Picassos work showed influences from African art, particularly masks and he was influenced by artist Paul Cezanne.

3 x where seen in ANY of their work =

Use of mask- like faces in ‘Guernica’ & simplified shapes of ‘Weeping Woman’,Simplified forms of Cezanne- as seen in Picassos Cubist works such as ‘Les Demoiselles D Avignon’ LADIES OF THE AVENUE. The bold outlines and textured brushwork in Guernica are also taken from Cezanne’s post-impressionist style.