Coincidences

In Paris, we were privileged to stay at the Davis' fabulous apartment on the Rue Pigalle. At the foot of our bed was this paper cut-out piece by Henri Matisse. I looked at it very closely, noting that it was really made from cut paper, noting the real signature.

In one of those great coincidences it was no more than a week or so later, when we returned to California, that I discovered a book in a used book store which was the complete catalog of Matisse's cut paper works. Text in the book suggested that some of these late pieces were executed by assistants at the master's direction.

It didn't really matter, but I spent a little time noting that the tiny flaws seen in the torn paper of the one in our bedroom are seen in the catalog reproduction, even though it's listed as being part of the Tate collection.

Who knows for sure, "ours" was probably a fancy print of some kind. But that wasn't the end of it. Within a week or so after this, I was again browsing art books and made this discovery in a monograph on an African-American woman painter named Alma Thomas.

It wasn't plagarism so much as an homage. The Thomas book notes that her folky style was changing due to a lot of influences at the time, and it included a photo of Matisse's work. That particular piece had traveled to New York in 1961.

(Note that this photo also includes the small flaw I had circled in the edge of the upper right green shape.)

So I was pleased and excited last week to see that Michelle Obama just selected Alma Thomas' "Watusi" as decoration for her White House offices. I wonder if she or her art consultant is aware of the Matisse connection.








Ha-ha! Within minutes of posting this blog entry I picked up the Sunday NY Times and read Holland Cotter's "Critic's Notebook"

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/weekinreview/11cotter.html?_r=2&ref=weekinreview