色彩大師——馬蒂斯

馬蒂斯與畢加索同為20世紀現代藝術的巨擘，你可能更熟悉后者的名字，而對前者知之甚少，但以馬蒂斯為首的野獸派畫家卻引領了上世紀的繪畫大革命。馬蒂斯在現代藝術的領域探險，形成了形色簡約、愉悅和諧的野獸畫風。其作品中耀眼跳動的畫面、恣意而又明朗的畫風，營造出一個個野獸派的伊甸園。而這一切都源自于法國南部的一個小鎮(zhèn)帶給他的靈感。一起去聽聽其中的故事吧。

The first time I saw a picture by the French artist Henri Matisse， I was just a kid. It was one of his famous Blue Nudes， incredibly simple， just one colour with no detail at all， bit like a 1）primitive cave painting. But something about it fascinated me then， and still does. And since shops like IKEA began selling posters of it， it’s everywhere. In student flats， pizza houses， my local gym， and even my granny’s got one.

But Matisse didn’t always paint simple， bold pictures like his Blue Nude. He began his career as a really traditional painter. He started with 2）intricately crafted still lifes， then things got much more colourful， then a lot less detailed， and finally he gave up with detail altogether and went with pure shape and colour. In fact， he’s often called “The Master of Colour，” and some even say he created the way our modern world looks.

This is the small fishing town of Collioure on the Mediterranean coast in France. In fact， it’s so far south， it’s almost in Spain. Just look around. The first thing that really strikes you is the very brilliant quality of the light， and the strong， powerful， very saturated colours. Now these were things that Matisse was always searching for.

Matisse was 3）staggered by the intensity of what he saw and felt here. And the radical way he chose to capture it on canvas would horrify the art establishment.

Alistair Wright （Matisse Expert）： It’s around this time that he starts quoting an 4）aphorism， which was that a kilogram of green is greener than half a kilogram of green. What Matisse took that to mean is that if you want your colours to seem intense you have to use more of them. You can’t break them up into， into small areas. You have to put on a big slab of red if you want it to really sound as red in the painting. He started to use colours in ways that have ever been done before in the history of Western painting.

Matisse’s blocks of wild colour barely resembled the real world， and broke every established rule. Over centuries， the craft of painting had been refined. There were conventions of light， shadow， perspective and 5）imperceptible brushwork. But to capture his feelings about Collioure， Matisse decided to ignore all that.

The Matisse look is much imitated. And all sorts of products that you wouldn’t have thought of are now jumping on the Matisse bandwagon. This is an *Orla Kiely bag， clearly inspired by Matisse. Nowadays， you can buy Matisse 6）acrylic paints， wash your dyed hair with Matisse shampoo， before you put on your Matisse jumper and wrap yourself up in a Matisse scarf. Your dogs can chew on a rubber man called Henri in the shape of 7）Icarus. And your kids can cuddle their*Miffy rabbit. Now I bet you didn’t know this， but if it wasn’t for Matisse， sweet little Miffy here wouldn’t exist. She may not be the artist’s biggest gift to humankind， but， without her， I think the world would be a poorer place.

So Matisse is still very much in our world. He’s inspired countless painters， as well as fashion designers and interior designers. You can see his influence in commercial logos and kids’ cartoons. Vibrant colour， simple， expressive shapes， less clutter， less detail. More impact， more feeling. Matisse pioneered the look of the modern world.

我第一次看到法國畫家亨利·馬蒂斯創(chuàng)作的一幅畫時，還是個孩子。那幅畫是他著名的《藍色裸體》系列中的一幅，畫作簡單得不可思議，只有一種顏色，毫無細節(jié)，有點像遠古的洞穴壁畫，但是作品中的某種東西深深地吸引了我，以至于我現在仍然癡迷不已。由于像宜家這樣的家具店早已開始出售這幅作品的貼畫，這幅畫變得隨處可見：學生寢室、比薩店、我所在地的健身房，甚至我奶奶都有一幅。

但是馬蒂斯的畫并不是一直都像《藍色裸體》那樣簡約而又大膽。他在藝術生涯剛開始之時可是一個很傳統的畫家。他以畫一些復雜而精致的靜物畫起步，后來他的作品變得色彩紛呈，再后來，作品中少了許多細節(jié)，最終他完全放棄了所有細節(jié)，只用純粹的形狀和顏色。他更是常常被稱為“色彩大師”，有人甚至說正是他創(chuàng)造了我們當今世界的模樣。

這個位于法國地中海沿岸的小漁村叫科利烏爾。這里實際上非常靠南，已經快到西班牙了。環(huán)顧一下四周，最吸引人的就是這里極其明媚的陽光，以及強烈、帶有沖擊力、且富有濃郁色彩的景色。……