M at is s e ' s P r i n tm a ki n g Processes

Aquati n t: Aquatint is a variation on the etching process that allows the

artist to add passages of tone to the print. To create an aquatint, an etching plate is dusted with a ne rosin powder and heated to bind the rosin onto the plate. The particles of rosin dust are acid resistant; thus when immersed in acid, the metal is bitten in small areas around the particles. The result is a plate etched with ne recesses that hold onto ink and print as a network of small, irregular dots. The depth of the recesses, and hence the darkness of the tone, can be controlled by varying the amount of time that the plate is exposed to the acid. Aquatint plates can be burnished or rubbed with a smooth metal tool to modify or add highlights to areas of tone.

Li noleum c ut : Linoleum cut is a variation on the woodcut in which

a sheet of linoleum is carved instead of a plank of wood. Introduced in the late nineteenth century for use as oor coverings, linoleum was originally produced from solidied linseed oil mixed with wood dust and adhered to a burlap backing. Because linoleum is strong but relatively soft and has no directional grain, it can be more easily carved than wood and is not susceptible to splitting during carving or printing.

Li t h o g raph : Lithography is a planographic process, meaning that the

ink design is impressed on paper from a at surface that has been chemically altered rather than from an incised, carved, or otherwise irregular surface. The process is based upon the chemical incompatibility of oil and water. To make a lithograph, the artist draws with an oil-based crayon or ink on a smooth porous surface such as a limestone block or a specially grained metal plate. The stone is then prepared in order to hold ink in areas of an artists design and repel ink in non-image areas. Once the image is xed on the stone, the artist can add highlights and detail to the design by scraping the surface of the stone with a needle or a knife. Printing a lithograph requires a special at-bed press that forces the paper in contact with the inked stone at a high, even pressure.

Drypo i n t: Drypoint is an intaglio process, meaning the design (image) is actually incised in a metal plate. This is in a class of printing techniques that also includes aquatint, engraving, etching, and mezzotint. To take an impression from an intaglio plate, ink is forced down into the incised lines of the plate, and excess ink is wiped from its surface. A sheet of paper is placed on top of the plate and passed under the roller of a printing press. Under the pressure of the press, the paper is pushed down into the lines to receive the ink. To make a drypoint, the artist scratches lines directly on the plate with a sharp instrument such as a needle or a knifepoint. The process of scratching the plate displaces metal and creates a rough burr of metal along the edges of each line. The burr holds extra ink that, when printed, creates lines that have a soft, feathery quality. Etchi n g: Etching is an intaglio process in which the lines of the design are etched or bitten into the metal plate using the corroding action of acid. To make an etching, the plate is covered with a ground layer of an acid-resistant material such as wax or resin. The artist draws through the ground with a needle to expose areas of bare metal. When the plate is brushed with or immersed in acid, the artists drawing is etched into the metal. The ground layer is removed, and the plate is inked and printed using an intaglio press. L i f t - g r o u n d aq uat i n t : Lift-ground (also known as sugar lift)
aquatint is an intaglio process that allows the artist to create prints that have the uid appearance of pen and ink or brush and ink drawings. In this process, the artist draws or paints on the plate with a sugar-based (water soluble) solution. After the solution dries, the plate is coated with an acid-resistant varnish and immersed in water. As the water-soluble solution slowly dissolves, it lifts the varnish from the areas of the plate where the artist drew. Then, as with a standard aquatint, the plate is dusted overall with rosin, heated to fuse the powder in place, and etched with acid.

M onot y pe: A monotype is a print made after an artist paints or draws with printing ink directly on a at, smooth surface such as a sheet of glass or an otherwise unprepared metal printing plate. Normally, only one good impression can be taken from a monotype. Monotypes generally fall into two distinct groups: those made in the white eld manner, where the ink is built up on the plate in the same manner as an ink drawing; and those made in the dark eld manner, created by removing ink from a fully inked plate. Transfer Li t h o g raph : Lithographs do not need to be drawn directly on the stone. Drawings made with lithographic crayons on another surface, such as paper, can be transferred by pressure onto a stone and prepared for printing using the standard techniques. The advantages of transfer lithography include the convenience with which the artist can draw on a surface that is more portable and familiar than a lithographic stone and the fact that the printed image will be in the same orientation as the original drawing.

Matisse as Printmaker: Works from the Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation is organized by the American Federation of Arts and the Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation.

YEARS

100

exHI BITION ITINERARY

The Baltimore Museum of Art October 25, 2009 January 3, 2010 Tampa Museum of Art Tampa, Florida February 4April 18, 2010 The Blanton Museum of Art University of Texas at Austin May 23August 1, 2010 Art Gallery of Alberta Edmonton, Alberta, Canada October 29, 2010February 13, 2011

19092009

Wo od c ut : A woodcut is created by carving into a plank of wood with knives, gouges, and other cutting tools. Since woodcut is a relief process, the areas carved away from the wood dene the highlights, or non-printed areas. To take an impression, the raised areas of the block are rolled with a layer of ink, and then the image is printed on paper with pressure applied by a printing press or through rubbing.
To m P rimeau
Director of Conservation and Paper Conservator The Baltimore Museum of Art
Large Odalisque with Bayadre Culottes, 1925. Crayon transfer lithograph with scraping, 21 E/af x 17 W in. (image); 29 x 22 A/af in. (sheet). Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation (1727 - 109014)

The American Federation of Arts is a nonprot institution that organizes art exhibitions for presentation in museums around the world, publishes exhibition catalogues, and develops education programs.
All works 2009 Succession H. Matisse/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

2009 American Federation of Arts 305 East 47th Street, 10th Floor New York, NY 10017 212.988.7700 www.afaweb.org

above: The Large Woodcut, 1906. Woodcut, 18 AA/af x 14 AE/af in. (image); 22 X x 18 V in. (sheet). Pierre and
Tana Matisse Foundation (1733 - 110001)

cover: Seated Nude, Viewed from Behind, 1913. Crayon transfer lithograph, 16 X x 9 in. (image); 19 R x 13 in. (sheet). Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation (1491 - 101011)

M at i s s e a s Printmaker
Works from the Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation

Henri Matisse Engraving, 190003. Drypoint, 5 Y x 7 Y inches (image); 9 AC/af x 12 AE/af in. (sheet). Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation (1303 - 105083)

The Large Nude, 1906. Crayon, brush and tusche lithograph with scraping, 11 N x 9 AE/af in. (image); 17 O x 13 AE/af in. (sheet). Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation (1714 - 109001)

The Painter Albert Marquet, 191415. Monotype, 5 AA/af x 4 V in. (image); 12 AC/af x 9 Y in. (sheet). Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation (1708 - 108007)

Young Woman Sleeping near a Fishbowl, 1929. Etching, 4 Y x 6 I/af in. (image); 11 x 14 AE/af in. (sheet). Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation (1659 - 106042)

H e n r i M at i s s e

was a printmaker, draftsman, sculptor, and of course a painter. An extraordinary artist, he was deeply engaged with all these pursuits, which he saw as closely related. Matisse worked in various mediums simultaneouslysometimes setting one aside for years, taking it up again when a particular technique offered the possibility of a desired result. Just like painting or sculpture, printmaking was a means to an endthe end being a visual statement that emerged through a gradual process of transformation. The generosity of Matisses art stems
from his desire to lead his audience to a new way of seeing by leaving traces of his creative process along the waywhether the still visible pentimenti in a painting; the remains of erased lines below new ones in graphite or charcoal drawings; the impression of immediacy in the modeling of wet clay; or the freedom of exploration in printmaking. Even though Matisse integrated all of these artistic means, separating them enables us to comprehend most clearly his particular reasons for choosing a given medium such as printmaking. Only then can the full intent of Matisses art be legible and can we recognize a process of renement toward the pure and essential, as found in his last paper cutouts, in the simplicity of drawing in his early monotypes, and in his nal aquatints of faces.

Printmaking, a truly democratic art, enabled Matisse to create a library of images that could be made available to a wide range of collectors and public institutions. He produced more than 850 single prints and many more through his production for book projects. In printmaking, Matisses reliance on drawing becomes most evident. For instance, his use of transfer lithography allowed for the direct transcription of the weight and character of a drawn line. Although he relied on printers to realize the editions of his prints, Matisse understood what a particular medium might facilitate and when another would be more appropriate. Unlike his contemporary Picasso or earlier masters such as Rembrandt or Goya, Matisses engagement with the processes of printmaking did not require that he wrestle with techniques. There was no need to immerse his hands in the acid or to struggle with coaxing a dark passage from the lithographic stone. His orientation to printmaking afforded him the same opportunity of trial and development that his drawing sessions in the studio enabled. His was the same collaborative impulse present in the turn-of-the-century print production by such artists as Pierre Bonnard, Paul Czanne, and Edouard Vuillard. Initially using the same printer as they, Matisse relied upon the abilities of a professional, enabling him to fully realize his expectations. Matisse as Printmaker brings printmaking from the shadows of Matisses work as a painter, foregrounding his use of black and white over the vibrant colors that most often characterize his work. The exhibition loosely follows the
Nadia, Face in Three-quarter Prole, 1948. Liftground aquatint, 17 V x 13 AA/af in. (image); 26 x 19 AA/af in. (sheet). Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation (1442 - 104038)

chronology of his artistic career, pausing along the way to focus on particular techniques: his rst lithographs of models in the studio; the early etchings and monoprints of family and friends made on a small etching press in his studio; and a substantial production of lithographs highlighting the rich interiors with odalisques that mark the great success of his 1920s paintings. Like his drawings, the prints follow different modesdrawing the outline of the gure, observing the contours of the body, or, by contrast, acknowledging the role of light in modeling the gure and its surroundings. Once the evolution of his approach to the various printmaking techniques becomes familiar, it is possible to distinguish one period in the chronology from another. It becomes apparent, for instance, that the lineage of a lithograph of 1922 reaches back to 1906. An idea introduced in a woodcut from 1906 might reappear transformed in a lithograph or sculpture of 1925. Through Matisses concentration on a relatively narrow range of subjects, we recognize his profound interest in variations on themes. Above all other mediums, printswhether single or sequenced in booksenabled Matisse to advance the importance of serial imagery. Matisse as Printmaker includes many groups of prints in series rather than a sampling, which would create a false impression of a printmaking oeuvre of stand-alone images. A series can manifest various themes; a style of drawing; a medium-centered
Nude on Blue Cushion Next to a Chimney, 1925. Crayon transfer lithograph (after rework of drawing, used for transfer for Nude on Blue Cushion), 25 A/af x 18 AC/af in. (image); 29 O x 22 in. (sheet). Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation (1265 - 101056)

exploration of a particular technique; a gural posethe reclining nude or a gure seated in a chair; studies of a models legs, ballet dancers, or odalisques; portraits of a single model or a group of portraits drawn in a similar style. For instance, in a 1929 series of etchings of a model with a bowl of goldsh, the gure is alternately gazing at the sh, looking at us, or simply preoccupied and looking nowhere in particular. Matisse made many self-portraits, and three from different times of his lifein 190003, 1923, and 1944are included in the exhibition. The rst of these, perhaps the artists earliest print, was clearly inspired by Rembrandt, an artist who also charted the changes that life brought to his face in an extended series of self-portraits. In his rst two groups of lithographs, from 1906 and 1913, serial imagery takes us into the artists studio as work with a model progresses. This evokes the passage of timea collaboration between artist and model and above all a process that leads from the familiar to the unexpectednew paths toward visualizing the models pose. Parallels with these print series often exist in Matisses series of sculptures or paintings. Matisse made only two single color prints, though many more appear in his books. Color can almost seem an intrusion in prints, unnecessary in a medium that so ably evokes hue in the contrasts of dark and lighta dark line against the white of the paper. Mark-making can capture an impression rather than just describe a form. In the three early woodcuts of 1906, Matisse seems to channel the expressionist drawing of Vincent van Gogh. The broad lines in the blocksactually carved, following the artists bold drawings, by Matisses
The Persian, 1929. Crayon lithograph with scraping, 17 X x 11 G/af in. (image); 24 AC/af x 17 K in. (sheet). Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation (1245 - 101015)

wifeallow light to be absorbed from the surroundings, captured by the white of the paper. In the linoleum cuts of 1938, the contrast is reversed as sinuous white lines come forth from a surrounding black, an approach rst seen in his monoprints of 191415. In the masterly lithographs of 192223inspired by his brilliant charcoal drawings of the same yearsMatisse draws light from the dark passages of shade, bringing forth his models from the profusion of detail surrounding them. Finally, his printmaking culminates with a series of brush aquatints that begin in 1947 and continue to 195051, a few years before his death in 1954. In this series, facial features are conveyed with just a few strokes of a broad brush against the ever-present white of the paper. Each face is carefully composed within a space determined by the sheet of paper. A model, Nadiasometimes with a frown or a smile, serious or distantcan be viewed in prole or head on. Such images, joined by cut-paper works, covered the walls of Matisses apartment in Nice, populating his living space with a owering of art the culmination of a lifetime of observation and realization.
Jay Fisher
Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs and Senior Curator of Print, Drawings, and Photographs The Baltimore Museum of Art

Nadia in Sharp Prole, 1948. Lift-ground aquatint, 16 AE/af x 13 O in. (image); 26 x 19 AA/af in. (sheet). Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation (1430 - 104026)