Matisse, Le Coeur (The Heart), photo from The National Galleries of Scotland |
A few years ago, I asked a rabbi, "Do you have a blessing for someone with a broken heart?" He responded with a saying of the Kotzker Rebbe (d. 1859), "There is nothing more whole than a broken heart." I've tried to create some kind of image to go with that saying, but have gotten nowhere. Now I can give up the quest, as I have the Matisse image instead.
I hadn't realized how much text there is in Jazz, and how piercing some of it is.
Here's an image of how the text is laid out (with each page about 16" high):
And one of the passages I particularly like:
"A new painting should be a unique thing, a birth bringing a new face into the representation of the world through the human spirit. The artist should call forth all his energy, his sincerity, and the greatest possible modesty in order to push aside during his work the old clichés that come so readily to his hand and can suffocate the small flower which itself never turns out as one expected."
And look at the lettering for the title, a second version directly following the first.
Several years ago, I was on the Curriculum Committee of my college when a proposal came through for a new course in the Art Department on "Typography." A member of the committee questioned whether typography was a field in art. Indeed, yes.
How unbelievable that you discovered this Matisse cut-out in Galesburg!
ReplyDeleteWhen I used Google to search for "Matisse, Le Coeur (The Heart)," your "Studio Notes" entry was the 7th listing!
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