GLENN LOWRY: Matisse made Large Decoration with Masks near the end of his life, when his work became grander in scale and ambition. Samantha Friedman:
SAMANTHA FRIEDMAN: When the cutouts attain this incredible scale you really – you want to move closer to it. You become almost immersed in its color. You really enter into it in a way.
GLENN LOWRY: The blue columns and repeating flowers also speak to his lifelong interest in the decorative.
SAMANTHA FRIEDMAN: Sometimes we think about this idea of decoration as being less avant-garde, say, than abstract art. But for Matisse, decoration was extremely important. And this idea of a mural scale, a really environmental scale was something that he always wanted to achieve. Ten years before this work, he talks about some paradise, where he can paint frescos. So this is not a fresco per se, but we do have this idea of a wall-scaled work.