Henri Matisse - Cut-Outs

Henri Matisse, the artist who looked all life long with the eyes of a child and liberated color from the tyranny of rules, developed in his last years these amazing paper cut-outs on canvas that transcend all art rules. It is a triumph of light, of childish play, of delicacy, of fragility. I am looking at them: you could say that's Greek Art, or African art, or Romanian art; it is pure art beyond any definition. It is Mozartian play.

Woman with Amphora and Pomegranates, 1953

Venus, 1952

La Négresse, 1952

Large Composition with Masks, 1953

Les Bêtes de la Mer, 1950

(Washington DC National Gallery of Art)