In the final decades of his life, Matisse invented a new form of art, the cut-out. Working with scissors and sheets of gouache-painted paper, he cut various shapes—from the organic to the geometric—and arranged them into lively compositions. Cut-outs formed the prototypes for the printed images in the illustrated book Jazz, which Matisse insisted remain absolutely faithful to the original colors. In response, the publisher turned to pochoir, a stencil printing technique in which the same gouaches could be used. Matisse created two versions of the prints: one for a portfolio and the second for the illustrated book, whose plates were interspersed with a text by Matisse, written in his looping calligraphy.

Gallery label from

"Colllection 1940s—1970s", 2019

Medium One from a portfolio of twenty pochoirs
Dimensions composition (irreg.): 16 1/4 x 12 9/16" (41.3 x 31.9 cm); sheet: 16 9/16 x 25 5/8" (42.1 x 65.1 cm)
Publisher Tériade, Paris
Printer Edmond Vairel, Paris, Draeger Frères, Paris
Edition 100
Credit Gift of the artist
Object number 291.1948.1
Portfolio Jazz
Department Drawings and Prints

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