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Lot Essay
Apart from its influence on art history, the book represents a monumental personal triumph for the artist. Though conceived years earlier, Matisse began work in earnest on Jazz in 1943 while battling cancer. The paper cutout collage was an ideal vehicle for Matisse during his illness as his hands had become less nimble with age and he was confined to bed. The images of Jazz reflect a surprising explosion of mental vigor that contrasts with the fading health of the artist, particularly because the project took Matisse more than two years to complete.
While he had previously experimented with cutouts, Jazz was his first major foray in to the medium and a harbinger of the monumental collages that defined his later oeuvre. Challenged to translate the originals into print, Tériade and Matisse eventually decided on the printing technique of pochoir because it best emulated the palette, texture, sharp edges, and layering of Matisse's original collage compositions. A fortuitous choice, the resulting vibrant color and palpable topography breathes life into the dancing figures and fronds of Jazz.
Inspired by the circus, folk tales and exotic voyages, Matisse thought of his cut-outs as 'cristallisations de souvenirs' (D. Fourcade, Henri Matisse - Écrits et propos sur l'art, Paris, 1972). Originally titled Cirque, the improvised themes and compositional variations prompted the printer Tériade to suggest Jazz as an alternative title. When the book was published in 1947 it met with an unprecedented success: De tous les livres de Matisse, Jazz est sans aucun doute le plus important: il provoque une véritable révolution dans l'oeuvre de l'artiste et dans l'histoire de l'art contemporain (Michel Anthonioz, Hommage Tériade, Paris, 1973, p. 125).
Yet Matisse never envisioned Jazz to be an illustrated book but rather a collection of artistic plates. Originally titled Cirque, the combination of Matisse's looping script, improvised themes, and compositional variations prompted the printer Tériade to suggest Jazz as an alternative title. The present set is from the edition that includes Matisse's handwritten text and sheds light on the creative process through the artist's musings on the images. In earlier projects, Matisse had augmented printed text with his own hand and relished the "close and delicious marriage of the letter and drawing such that they become one." (Duthuit, p. 420). Through the inclusion of his own text rather than that of another author, Jazz became the only manuscript the Matisse both wrote and illustrated.
While he had previously experimented with cutouts, Jazz was his first major foray in to the medium and a harbinger of the monumental collages that defined his later oeuvre. Challenged to translate the originals into print, Tériade and Matisse eventually decided on the printing technique of pochoir because it best emulated the palette, texture, sharp edges, and layering of Matisse's original collage compositions. A fortuitous choice, the resulting vibrant color and palpable topography breathes life into the dancing figures and fronds of Jazz.
Inspired by the circus, folk tales and exotic voyages, Matisse thought of his cut-outs as 'cristallisations de souvenirs' (D. Fourcade, Henri Matisse - Écrits et propos sur l'art, Paris, 1972). Originally titled Cirque, the improvised themes and compositional variations prompted the printer Tériade to suggest Jazz as an alternative title. When the book was published in 1947 it met with an unprecedented success: De tous les livres de Matisse, Jazz est sans aucun doute le plus important: il provoque une véritable révolution dans l'oeuvre de l'artiste et dans l'histoire de l'art contemporain (Michel Anthonioz, Hommage Tériade, Paris, 1973, p. 125).
Yet Matisse never envisioned Jazz to be an illustrated book but rather a collection of artistic plates. Originally titled Cirque, the combination of Matisse's looping script, improvised themes, and compositional variations prompted the printer Tériade to suggest Jazz as an alternative title. The present set is from the edition that includes Matisse's handwritten text and sheds light on the creative process through the artist's musings on the images. In earlier projects, Matisse had augmented printed text with his own hand and relished the "close and delicious marriage of the letter and drawing such that they become one." (Duthuit, p. 420). Through the inclusion of his own text rather than that of another author, Jazz became the only manuscript the Matisse both wrote and illustrated.