The Cut-Outs
By all accounts I had a charming day yesterday. I watched Manchester United defeat Newcastle (3-0!) and then I walked down to the MOMA where my wife and I saw the Matisse Cut-Outs.
From the long, winding line I expected the exhibit to be something marvelous—but it wasn’t all that exciting. The cut-outs consisted mainly of colorful construction paper worked into shapes resembling flowers. I suppose the impressive bit was the scale of it all. Matisse dared to paste his paper designs over whole walls whereas most would probably refrain from such exuberance.
A video of the aged Matisse at work captured the bulk of my attention. With a straw hat, he sat snipping away at paper held and maneuvered by a young lady.
How easy that must be!
I think we’d all cut more paper if someone could wrestle with it for us and dispose of scraps and botched attempts. I hate nothing more than cutting paper and dealing with its peculiarities alone.