The public is invited to join the Muscatine Art Center in welcoming Carol Ehlers, art history speaker, as she presents a 45 minute lecture on the art of French painter and sculptor Henri Matisse. The lecture will take place Thursday, May 24 at 5:30 pm in the Muscatine Art Center`s Music Room. Admission is free.
Henri Matisse was an artist known as a draftsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter and for his use of color. Matisse was one of the leaders of the "Fauves", a group of painters united by their use of fresh color, pure pigments and distortion of form. Years later he would be hailed as a champion of the classical tradition in French painting. His mastery of the expressive language of color and drawing, displayed in a body of work spanning over a half-century, won him recognition as a leading figure in modern art.
Henri->mile-Benoît Matisse was born December 31, 1869 in France. He first started to paint in 1889, after his mother brought him art supplies while he recovered from appendicitis. He discovered "a kind of paradise" as he later described it, and decided to become an artist, deeply disappointing his father, who wanted him to study law.
In late 1890`s Matisse was introduced to Post-Impressionism, which changed his style completely. Many of Matisse's paintings from 1898 to 1901 make use of the pointillist technique he adopted from Georges Seurat and Paul Signac.
Later in life and wheelchair-bound, Matisse started creating cut paper collages, called gouaches découpés. He called this technique "painting with scissors". In 1951 he finished a four-year project of designing the interior, the glass windows and the decorations of the Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence, often referred to as the Matisse Chapel. Matisse died of a heart attack at the age of 84 in 1954.
In 1992 the Muscatine Art Center`s collections were significantly enriched by a gift of twenty-seven works of art by Toulouse-Lautrec, Matisse, Degas, Boudin, Chagall, Renoir, and other European artists. The collection was a gift from the estate of Mary Musser Gilmore in honor of her parents, Richard Drew Musser and Sarah Walker Musser. The paintings are on permanent display in the Laura Musser Mansion.
EVENT DETAILS:
Lecture: "The Wonderful World of Color: Henri Matisse"
Who: Carol Ehlers
When: Thursday, May 24, 2012
Time: 5:30 PM
Where: The Muscatine Art Center`s Music Room
Admission to this program is FREE.
Please contact Katy Doherty, Program Coordinator, with any questions or concerns at 563-263-8282 or by email at kdoherty@muscatineiowa.gov.
The Muscatine Art Center is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 AM to 5 PM, Thursday from 10 AM to 7 PM and Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 5 PM Admission is FREE.
