Leader of Fauvism, liberator of color
The leader of Fauvism, named with Picasso as the two poles of twentieth-century art. If Picasso revolutionized "form," Matisse revolutionized "color" — letting color break entirely free of "what color the object really is," so the sky could be red and a face green, all obeying only the harmony and feeling of the picture. In his later years, when illness kept him from the brush, he took up scissors instead, cutting and pasting colored paper into bright, lively forms, opening a whole new field.
The aged Matisse, gravely ill, could no longer stand and paint for long. He did not stop, but took up scissors to "carve directly in color" — cutting painted paper into vivid leaves, human forms, and seaweed, pasting them into huge, bright compositions. At eighty, with a pair of scissors, he opened a second youth for his art, and proved that creativity can go around any limit of the body.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.