Matisse

Henri Matisse was a French painter known for his use of color and representation. Matisse died in 1954 but before he did, he developed a new form of art: the cut-out. 

Photo: nndb.com

Initially, he used this style to plan a painting. One of the very first cut-outs was for his "Still Life with a Shell." The cut-out pieces of paper that represented the objects allowed him to arrange and rearrange them before he began painting. He continued with the cut-outs in this way until he began to create them to be stand alone pieces of art.

Photo: quizlet.com

Matisse was diagnosed with cancer in 1941 and confined to a wheelchair. A risky surgery helped him to continue to live and work and it was at this point, late in life, that he began his influential cut-outs. The cut-outs did not always remain as paper. His piece "Oceania, the Sky Oceanis, The Sea" began with the cut out of a bird he didn't want to discard; it eventually became a silk screen. 

Photo: water.pulitzerartists.org

He also designed stained glass; in particular, the stained glass for the Chapel of the Rosary in Venice after he was asked to help design the Dominican church there by a nun who had been his nurse. Though baptized a Catholic, Matisse was not religious and instead of working on the commission from a religious point of view, he saw it as an artistic challenge. Today the chapel is also known as Chapel Matisse because it is considered to be his masterpiece.

Currently, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City has a special exhibit of Matisse's cut-outs. (http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1469)

Photo: theartnewspaper.com