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Palettes of Picasso, Matisse, Degas and Van Gogh are works of art unto themselves


Vincent Van Gogh
 
Some years ago the inventive German photographer Matthias Schaller who specializes in what he calls the “indirect portrait” was in the studio of Cy Twombly and happened to glance at the painter’s palette, smeared with pigments of various hues, but mainly a shade of red fairly close to the color of blood. It occurred to Schaller that the palette is arguably as identifiable to an artist as the artist’s work itself, even if created purely by accident. As he puts it, “The palette is an abstract landscape of the painter’s artistic production.”

Schaller has created a series of marvelous photographs of the palettes of famous artists, each of which measures at roughly 190 x 150 cm. The collection, called “Das Meisterstück” (The Masterpiece), has appeared as an exhibition and is available in book form as well—for more information write an email to thepalettebook@gmail.com.

These are all utterly fascinating to gaze at; my favorites are those of Bacon and Kokoschka. They’re all pretty wonderful.
 

Pablo Picasso
 

Claude Monet
 

Salvador Dalí
 
See the palettes of Matisse, Manet, Kandinsky, Kahlo, Bacon and many more after the jump…

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Posted by Martin Schneider
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05.22.2015
09:46 am
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How Matisse colored our world: ‘With color one obtains an energy that seems to stem from witchcraft’
03.31.2014
10:28 am
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Henri Matisse didn’t need the revolutionary gesture, he believed in art for art’s sake.

Matisse lived through a century of tumultuous change, but none of it had any effect on his work. Unlike Picasso, who compared himself to matadors and minotaurs, and sought public and political endorsement, Matisse believed in the bourgeois values he had inherited from his childhood in his hometown of Le Cateau-Cambrésis and believed art was best appreciated by the middle class.

Matisse was right. His once shocking painting “La Danse”, or his series of gouaches “Blue Nude”, or his collage “Jazz”, now decorate the walls, place mats, and drink coasters of many a middle class home. His art is valued and loved, while “revolutionary” works by Picasso, like “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” or “Guernica” are sold at museums as postcards, rather than prints for the dining room wall.

Matisse believed art should be “soothing”

“What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter—a soothing, calming influence on the mind, rather like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue.”

This is not to say Matisse was safe. His paintings were and are still revolutionary in their design, approach and use of color. Moreover, in his final years Matisse produced some of his greatest work - dazzling collages made from cut-out colored paper.

“With color one obtains an energy that seems to stem from witchcraft.”

 
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It was illness rather than witchcraft that played a key role in Matisse’s development as an artist. He first started painting at the age of twenty, whilst recovering from appendicitis.

“From the moment I held the box of colors in my hand, I knew this was my life.”

In 1941, the greatest creative period in Matisse’s career began when he was told that he was dying. He had stomach cancer and was not expected to live. After an operation to remove tumors from his intestines, Matisse struggled through long months of agonizing pain, and surprised the doctors, and nuns who attended him, by surviving against all the odds.

“In those little moments of calm, between two pangs, I imagined the inside of a tomb: a little space, completely enclosed, with no doors. And I told myself, ‘No, I prefer still being around even if it does mean suffering!’”

Matisse believed he did not have long to live (in fact he lived longer than either he or his medics thought), so he worked with a passion and intensity to make the most of this “second life.”

“It’s like being given a second life, which unfortunately can’t be a long one.”

He began to experiment by cutting up painted paper into collages to make startlingly original pictures. He was creating a new language of art that placed him above his rival Picasso.

The most comprehensive exhibition of Henri Matisse’s “cut-outs” opens at the Tate Modern, London, from April 14th until September 7th, 2014.

Art critic Alastair Sooke examines Matisse’s life, art and influence on our world, explaining how Matisse’s work has shaped much of our aesthetics—from color schemes, to fabrics, furniture and design.
 

 
Bonus: Hear Matisse speak, plus promo for the Tate show, after the jump…

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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03.31.2014
10:28 am
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Duglas T. Stewart: The incredible pop life of a BMX Bandit

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We seek to write the perfect sentence. The one that opens the paragraph, like a key in a door, to places undiscovered. It was how to begin this story on Duglas T Stewart, the lead singer and mainstay of BMX Bandits, whether with a fact or a quote, or oblique reference that would set the scene to unfurl his tale.

Duglas has written his fair share of perfect sentences - in dozens of songs over his twenty-five-year career with BMX Bandits. From the first singles in 1986, the debut album C86 in 1989, through to Bee Stings in 2007, Duglas has been at the center of an incredible family of talented musicians who have together created some of the most beautiful, toe-tapping and joyous music of the past 3 decades.

In the early 1990s, when Nirvana was top of the tree, Kurt Cobain said:

’If I could be in any other band, it would be BMX Bandits.’

It was a tip of the hat to a man who is responsible for singing, writing and producing songs of the kind of beauty and fragility Cobain aspired to.

Not just Cobain, but Brian Wilson and Kim Fowley are also fans, with Fowley explaining his own definition of what it means to be a BMX Bandit:

’It means a nuclear submarine floating through chocolate syrup skies of spinach, raining raisins on a Chihuahua covered infinity of plaid waistcoats, with sunglasses and slow motion. It sort of means, pathos equals suburban integrity of loneliness punctuated by really nice melodies.’

But let’s not take Kim’s word for it, we decided to ask Duglas to tell Dangerous Minds his own version of his life and love as a BMX Bandit.

DM: What was your motivation to become a musician?

Duglas T. Stewart: ‘Initially it was two things. I heard Jonathan Richman in 1977 and it sounded so human and full of warmth and humor and beauty. It also seemed to fly in the face in the punk ethos of DESTROY. It really made a connection with me and I thought I’d like to try to do something that hopefully might make others feel like I did listening to Jonathan. Listening to his music gave me a sense of belonging. I felt less alone.

‘The other thing was I met Frances McKee, later of The Vaselines, and I thought she was incredible. I loved everything about her from her mischievous sense of humor to her slightly overlapping front teeth. She said to me one day she thought it would be fun being in a group, and so I thought I would start a group and she could be in it and that way I could spend more time with her and have a vehicle for expressing how she made me feel.

‘Also I had a lot of self belief so I knew if I started a group it would be way better and more interesting than any other local groups at that time.
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds

The fabulous BMX Bandits: Interview and performance of ‘(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!)


 
More from Duglas on music, art & books, and from BMX Bandits, after the jump…
 
With thanks to Duglas T Stewart
 

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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08.24.2012
06:36 pm
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