controversial opinion

Henri Matisse sucks

look at this horseshit

(The Conversation)

if you’re gonna abstract down and tweak the perspective, do it for a purpose, my GOD. Why the fuck is the woman’s chair floating in midair? Why is the man’s body posture so stiff and unnatural? And get a load of that brushwork around the grating in the window. That is, and I say this sincerely, kindergarten coloring-book level without even the passion and visual interest that actual four-year-olds bring to their work. 

I can’t believe this. If I drew this, I’d scrap it and start over, but this is hanging in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. Why?? Why are we pretending that this is a good painting? Just because he was a good portraitist when he could be bothered, we’re now obligated to think that everything that came off his brush was sheer genius as though he was Leonardo da Fuckin’ Vinci. Give me a break! FAUVISM DOES NOT HAVE TO BE THIS WAY, PEOPLE! Look at this:

(Self-Portrait in the Studio, Andre Derain)

Yes, this is still made out of big chunky brushstrokes and colors that are more figurative than literal. Yes, the perspective is tilted. Yes, the background is basically made out of paint smears. 

But you know what? It has some fucking personality. The posture of the subject is natural rather than upright and rigid. The face is described by shadows instead of just plopped onto the skull. The traces of blue and purple on the skin give it a sense of life and vibrancy. The gaps in the brushwork occur across the whole work, lending it a sense of haste, rather than in one section, lending it a sense of the artist giving up and going home. The background doesn’t stop existing when the painter’s done with the focal point of the image. This is a painting that was made with intention.

I give up. Fuck Matisse.