With unprecedented and unrestricted access to his family correspondence, and other new material in private archives, Spurling documents a lifetime of desperation and self-doubt exacerbated by Matisse's attempts to counteract the violence of the 20th century in paintings.

Henri Matisse is one of the leading figures of modern art. His unparalleled cut-outs are among the most significant of any artist's late works. When ill health first prevented Matisse from painting, he began to cut into painted paper with scissors as his primary technique to make maquettes for a number of commissions, from books and stained glass window designs to tapestries and ceramics. Taking the form of a 'studio diary', the catalogue re-examines the cut-outs in terms of the methods and materials that Matisse used, and looks at the tensions in the works between finish and process; and drawings and colour.

171 paintings concentrated on works produced by Henri Matisse during the 1920s, when he lived in the South of France.

Henri Matisse: Figure Color Space~ISBN 3-7757-1601-7 U.S. $65.00 / Clothbound, 9.75 x 12 in. / 384 pgs / 200 color and 40 b&w. ~Item / February / Art Basically, there's only one: Matisse. --Pablo Picasso

The relationship between the great Post-Impressionist artist Henri Matisse and his son, influential art dealer Pierre Matisse, is at the heart of this deftly revealing and moving biography, now in paperback. 96 illustrations, 48 in full color.