
Recognising the public’s desire to watch conservation in action, the Fondation Beyeler will open a new, glass-fronted conservation studio later this month as part of its restoration and technical and scholarly investigation of Matisse’s Acanthes—a large format papier découpé or paper cut-out.
Cut-outs such as Acanthes constitute a late but innovative period in Matisse’s oeuvre. “Throughout his career, Matisse struggled to find the ideal form of artistic expression—the grande décoration. Cut-outs enabled him to express what he had wanted to accomplish all of his life,” said Ulf Küster, who is in charge of the collection at the Beyeler and curator of this project. He added: “They are a synthesis of drawing, painting and sculpture.”
Although there are still unanswered questions related to the creation of Matisse’s découpages, scholars know that he used scissors to cut out shapes from sheets of brightly-painted paper. Assistants would then attach them to a larger sheet of white paper according to Matisse’s detailed instructions. The Matisse Archives have preserved scraps of paper from the cut-outs. “Matisse never threw anything away. It is possible to reconstruct every scissor cut he made,” said Küster, adding: “This presents a fantastic opportunity to look over the shoulder of a great modern artist while he creates a conceptual work of art.”
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![Ivan Navarro, Nowhere Man 1, 2009
Phillip Niemeyer of Double Triple asked me yesterday why Ivan Navarro’s Nowhere Man 1 [pictured above] isn’t a work of plagiarism. I don’t have a sufficient defense. Spotted at the Armory’s Modern fair last week, the title does not acknowledge its origins which are obviously derived from Otl Aicher’s 1972 Munich Olympics designs. Neither one of us was convinced that rendering the piece in neon sufficiently changed the work.
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Paddy Johnson asks a good question, Why isn’t Ivan Navarro’s Nowhere Man 1 plagiarism?](http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kze1qrWjNf1qz849zo1_500.jpg)