© jeffrey isaac greenberg

Matisse, master of colors and he is famed as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. As the leader of the Fauves he was a relentless innovator of the art scene. His capture of symmetry in asymmetry along with his use of bold expressive colors and unique painting style brought him the admiration of Picasso and other artists. His pictures are so revolutionary because of its radical simplicity. Painting, Matisse seems to say, is not a representation of observed reality but the rhythmic arrangement of line and color on a flat plane. In his work, Matisse explored how far he could reduce images from nature to surface ornaments without destroying them. The placement of objects, figures, the proportions, empty spaces, all played a part in this.