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Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso & Mark Rothko



La Gerbe, the gorgeous work by Henri Matisse, a revolutionary artist who considered to be as one of the greatest colorists of the twentieth century and known for his Fauvism works. He began to paint in 1989 during the recovery period of severing sickness. Later he mentioned: “From the moment I held the box of colors in my hands, I knew this was my life. I threw myself into it like a beast that plunges towards the thing it loves.” The pure color was his main focus. La Gerbe (The Sheaf) 1953, multicolored leaves that resemble a spray of flowers, was completed a few months before his death, but it explodes with life. “What I dream of is an art of balance, purity, and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter... a soothing, calming influence on the mind, something like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue. ” -Henri Matisse.


"Head of Woman" 1909 by legendary Picasso. This work is Pablo Picasso’s first large Cubist sculpture and represents the distinctive physiognomy of Fernande Olivier, who was the artist’s model and mistress from 1905 until 1912. Before making the bust, Picasso produced countless drawings and gouaches to explore the specific form and structure of his subject’s facial features—her dark almond-shaped eyes, sharp nose, peaked upper lip, fleshy chin, and braided topknot. He also looked to African and ancient Iberian sculpture to guide his translation of Fernande’s profile into the geometric language of Cubism. Converting his studies to three dimensions, Picasso simultaneously built up and cut away the clay as he worked, giving the surface a unifying rhythm of light and shadow. The resulting bronze retains the basic shape of Fernande’s head, though the surface and structure are broken up into faceted, fragmented forms.


"White Center" painting by amazing Mark Rothko, American painter of Russian Jewish descent, he immigrated to the US together with his family in 1910. Rothko's early paintings were mostly portraits, nudes, and urban scenes. Rothko became famous particularly for his artworks that depicted rectangles with luminous colors, which he intended to stimulate deep emotions. In early 1968, Rothko was diagnosed with a mild aortic aneurysm. On February 25, 1970, Oliver Steindecker, Rothko's assistant, found the artist in his kitchen, lying dead on the floor in front of the sink, covered in blood. He had sliced his arms with a razor found lying at his side. The autopsy revealed that he had also overdosed on anti-depressants. He was 66. “It is really a matter of ending this silence and solitude, of breathing and stretching one's arms again.”

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