Friday, December 12, 2008

The Friday Evening Nudes

Self-Portrait
Henri Matisse


Odalisque With Magnolias




Decorative Figure on an Ornamental Ground



Blue Nude



Nude Sitting in an Armchair



Odalisque With Red Culottes





Nude With Raised Arms

13 comments:

  1. What a nice array of nudes tonight! I love the blue nude and the nude in an arm chair.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Because I'm too lazy to Google/Wiki it, what does "Odalisque" mean?

    ***

    These are very nice. I get the impression that Matisse neither overly-idolized, nor overly-(psycho)critiqued {cough} Picasso {cough} women.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Odalisque is a fancy 19th century French word for a harem girl.

    Picasso did worse than psycho-critique his women, he tore them apart with his brush.

    Thanks for the Matisses!

    ReplyDelete
  4. i like his and picassos use of colors but the grotesquity (made up my own word) of the scenes are not for me.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love 'nude sitting in an armchair' - the colors are wonderful, all my favorites

    ReplyDelete
  6. I think what I like even better than the nudes themselves in these Matisse are the backgrounds: the patterns and details and colors. Delectable.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I like but don't love Picasso's nudes. I don't think he could help the way he looked at things; including women. I understand that he was some variety of misogynist? Or otherwise a surly old man? ;-)

    See...I try not to let those things get in the way of how I look at art. Maybe I should? That is a genuine question.

    ReplyDelete
  8. well, I love the odalisque in the culottes...there is something there I relate to, although they are all wonderful...interesting comments too..always something new to learn...I too find picasso questionable but his gift is unquestionable...

    ReplyDelete
  9. I guess what I want to say about Picasso's women is that they were painted in the style that Picasso painted everything else during that Cubist period. I don't it's so much about the women themselves.

    But please differ if you wish. It's all interesting.

    Well put, Linda. An unquestionably gifted. Absolutely.

    ReplyDelete
  10. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I like that very first self-portrait nude (grin) - Matisse as nude as I suspect he ever was when painting... Gotta wear a tie. He makes me feel very relaxed, which is hard to do.

    Actually I don't particularly like Matisse's nudes - nor Picasso's - and for somewhat the same reason. They don't seem to me to see women as whole beings. They appear more as an assembly of parts. The last nude in this series - Nude with Raised Arms - is something of an exception - and maybe the Nude with Red Culottes. Otherwise I get this feeling of disjointed chunks of female flesh, breasts that are over simplified to simple circles or globes, almost like the artificially enhanced women of our era. I apologize if I am tarnishing these for anyone, but they disappoint me, and I always get the feeling that Matisse didn't really know what to do with the ladies. Picasso was worse.

    Renoir seldom objectified his models, or their anatomy. They always seem to be real people - people he is fond of. And few artists have better understood how to paint the beauty of breasts reverently, without making them the subject of the painting.

    But back to Matisse and Picasso = the compositions, the backgrounds, the way they handled color and shape - I'm with Linda; there is no denying their gifts. I just find their handling of human beings off-putting. Other comments here hit it on the head.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Steve: The title Decorative Figure is sort of telling, as it is exactly that, a decoration. The others I like a lot. I'm a Matisse fan, for better or for worse. But I do see what you mean and why.

    As I said, the nudes themselves are just one part of the composition; which I love; they are not necessarily the essential part.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Steve: I gave you The Heart Mandala Award but I think you missed it. Scroll down.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to say you've been here.

I am sorry to say that I don't publish anonymous comments unless I know you through your initials, first name or blog name. I don't publish comments that have ANY kind of commercial or 'for sale' links.

You are Invited to Scroll Down! :-)

Please feel free to scroll down and look at the followers list, badges, photos and tons and tons of great links!

Search This Blog

In Memory of Bobbie

In Memory of Bobbie
Almost There

ARTLEX Art Dictionary

Kick Homophobia in The Butt: Add Your Name to the List of Supporters

Kick Homophobia in The Butt:  Add Your Name to the List of Supporters
click photo

Northampton Prop 8 Protest

Northampton Prop 8 Protest

It's Only Love

It's Only Love
See More Elopment Pictures here
Thoughts from an Evil Overlord

Million Doors for Peace

Lines and Colors

Lines and Colors
A New Art Resource I Just Discovered!

Emily Dickinson - The Belle of Amherst

Emily Dickinson - The Belle of Amherst
"When the Amherst sphinx styled herself a pagan, she meant she didn’t believe in the biblical God. What sort of deity, if any, she did believe in is hard to pinpoint."
-- Gary Sloan, "Emily Dickinson: Pagan Sphinx,"

National Protest Against Prop 8

National Protest Against Prop 8

My Daughters

My Daughters

Code Pink

"The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice."
~Martin Luther King Jr.
Love and compassion is the Universal religion. That is my religion.
~ The Dalai Lama

This site is certified 30% EVIL by the Gematriculator

Blog Archive

Fair Use

I believe that the images and writing posted here fall under the "fair use" section of the U.S. copyright law http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#107, as they are intended for educational purposes and are not in a medium that is of commercial nature.

Labels

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin