Henri Matisse: A Second Life

Description

An essential guide to one of the 20th century's greatest artists - published in time for a major Tate Modern retrospective Henri Matisse was one of the most important and beloved artists of the twentieth century, rivalled only by his friend - and rival - Pablo Picasso. In a body of work spanning over a half-century, he was variously a draughtsman, a printmaker, a sculptor and a painter. This short book is both a biography and a guide to his art. It focuses on the extraordinary works that Henri Matisse made during the last period of his life - the large-scale cut-outs on coloured paper, including his famous Blue Nudes, The Snail and Large Composition with Masks.

Alastair Sooke is the author of the biographies Henri Matisse- A Second Life and Roy Lichtenstein- How Modern Art was Saved by Donald Duck, both published by Penguin. He is art critic for the Daily Telegraph and is a popular BBC broadcaster. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, and at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London.

Sooke is an immensely engaging character. He has none of the weighty self-regard that often afflicts art experts and critics; rather he approaches his subjects with a questioning, open, exploratory attitude -- Sarah Vine * The Times * His shows are excellent - clever, lively, scholarly, but not too lecturey; he's very good at linking his painters with the world outside the studio, and at how these artists have affected the world today' Sam Wollaston reviewing 'Modern Masters' * Guardian *