Matisse Monday

Someone mentioned Matisse (I think it was Teacher), and some of us said we loved Matisse, some mentioned his 'wild' strokes, some mentioned his colours. I said I had his book Jazz (nobody has heard of this, very wierd) at home. K said he has never heard of Matisse. We were all so puzzled by this. But then, of course K is only 20. He has hairy legs, and a head like an Angkor Wat statue.

Odalisque in Red Trousers, 1925, Henri Matisse: Matisse's numerous ‘odalisques’ show his passion for decorative pattern and motifs. Matisse visited the French colonies in North Africa (Algeria in 1906 and Morocco in 1912–13) where the brilliant light, exotic environment and Moorish architecture inspired a new body of work. His odalisques were ‘elaborate fictions’, re-creations of the harem with French models posed in his Nice apartment. The fabrics, screens, carpets, furnishings and costuming recalled the exoticism of the ‘Orient’.