<div class="x_margin-bottom" id="x_description_text_headlines"><div><strong>A color harmony that is analogous to a musical composition</strong></div><div>&nbsp;</div></div><div class="x_description_text"><div class="x_margin-bottom" id="x_description_text">Henri Matisse (1869-1954) is known not only as one of the most important French painters of the 20th century but also as co-founder and leading exponent of Fauvism. His work reflects an ongoing quest for the expressive power of pure, brilliant colors and simple forms; as a result, the realistic presentation of nature often retires to a secondary position.<br><br>For Matisse, color did not serve as a tool for the expression of subjective feelings, but rather became the equivalent of light itself: it functioned as a pure medium in the creation of an autonomous pictorial space: &quot;Out of my fruitful work with discovered tones there must emerge a vital color harmony, a harmony that is analogous to a musical composition.&quot;<br><br>As a creative artist, Matisse was not only a painter, but also experimented with other materials: he produced glass windows and theatre designs and created significant sculptures in bronze, ceramic and clay. In old age, confined to a wheelchair, he created collages with coloured paper, glue, and scissors: his famed gouache cut-outs.</div><div class="x_margin-bottom">&nbsp;</div><div class="x_margin-bottom" id="x_series_text" style="display:block"><strong>About the Series:</strong><br>Each book in TASCHEN’s Basic Art series features:<ul><li>a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance</li><li>a concise biography </li><li>approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions </li></ul></div></div>