Henri Matisse (31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter. Matisse is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp, as one of the three artists who helped to define the revolutionary developments in the plastic arts in the opening decades of the twentieth century, responsible for significant developments in painting and sculpture.

In 1887 he went to Paris to study law, working as a court administrator in Le Cateau-Cambrésis after gaining his qualification. He first started to paint in 1889, after his mother brought him art supplies during a period of convalescence following an attack of appendicitis. He discovered "a kind of paradise" as he later described it, and decided to become an artist, deeply disappointing his father.

Woman Reading by Henri Matisse

The 'Woman Reading' is displayed at the Museum of Modern arts in Paris. I personally think that this painting shows the subtleness of a reading women and the painting evokes a calm , reading atmosphere, however Matisse could of been presenting this painting in a different way for example Matisse doesn't state what the women is actually reading , is she reading a love letter? is she reading a suicidal note?  Matisse doesn’t state what the women is reading so there could be a meaning behind this painting. Due to the woman’s black dressing gown this could possibly mean that she is morning as someone has recently passed away hence to why there is a possibility that she has discovered the suicidal note within the person’s room or desk. 

 

'Woman with a Hat'



The Woman with a hat is an oil on canvas, it depicts Matisse's wife, Amelie. It was painted in 1905 ,in this painting it looks like Matisse slapped and scratched on a whole of different colour paints and had created a colourful image, due to the brushstrokes I would say that this image was done to show expression within the colours, primary and secondary colours have been used all throughout this painting and I believe Matisse possibly used an expressive brushstroke to bring out the brightness and pop in these certain colours Matisse has chosen. on this painting Matisse has used a variety of consistencies for example the oil paint has been applied heavily around the area of the hat and the dress as for the background and face the paint is shown to applied a lot more thinner , this is shown by the thicker the paint the darker it has come up on the canvas. Secondly, the colour on this painting has been exaggerated due to it not resembling the colours of the actual subject for example the use of the heavy green on the women's face is does not resemble to someone's skin tone especially not so heavy and dark.  



 

 

 

 "Sunglasses":

 

 I personally think that Craig-martin was trying to create a cluttered feeling due to all the mixed objects within the painting itself  I also think that Craig-Martin was also possibly trying to convey his day he had at the present time, for example the use of the sunglasses and a chair could symbolise being in the open (outdoors) and the use of the paint brushes and box could symbolise Craig-Martin possibly creating a piece of art work outside, in addition to that I think that this piece of art work gives the thought of nature.

 

This piece of work has been constructed with the use of bold black lines as its outline which has been carefully drawn. Craig-Martin uses flat colours which relates to 2D due to the objects having no form of tone within them, on the other hand it looks like Craig-Martin uses a lot of nursery colours which are stereotypically shown as bright and bold colours which creates a fun feel, this could also be mean that Craig-Martin has done this painting to attract the younger generation due to a more simple and brighter feel of work.

 

Craig-Martin also gives the illusion that some objects are further away from each other due to making the objects closer to you the biggest and the ones furthest the smallest, as an example the sunglasses have been placed in the middle of the composition making it the target focus of the image but this could possibly be because the artist wanted to create and illusion that the sunglasses was the closest thing to him which made it the biggest.

 



Michael Craig-Martin was born in Dublin in 1941 and he was educated in the United States, where he studied at Yale University. He then returned to Europe in the mid-1960s and was a key figure in the first generation of British conceptual artist.During the 1990's the focus of Craig-Martins work moved decisively to painting, with the same type of boldly outlined motifs and vivid colour schemes in unexpected combinations applied both to works on canvas and increasingly complex installations of wall paintings. Craig-Martin was also a tutor at Goldsmiths college in the 1980's along side Damien Hirst in the department of art.

Andy Warhol -Illustrator  was one of the most prolific and popular artists of his time, using both avant-garde and highly commercial sensibilities. He was a successful magazine and ad illustrator who became a leading artist of the 1960s Pop art movements. He ventured into a wide variety of art forms, including performance art, filmmaking, video installations and writing, and controversially blurred the lines between fine art and mainstream aesthetics .In the late 1950s, Warhol began devoting more attention to painting, and in 1961, he debuted the concept of "pop art"—paintings that focused on mass-produced commercial goods. In 1962, he exhibited the now-iconic paintings of Campbell's soup cans. These small canvas works of everyday consumer products created a major stir in the art world, bringing both Warhol and pop art into the national spotlight for the first time.Warhol's other famous pop paintings depicted Coca-cola bottles, vacuum cleaners and hamburgers. He also painted celebrity portraits in vivid and garish colors; his most famous subjects include Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Mick Jagger and Mao Zedong. Warhol died on February 22, 1987, at the age of 58.