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Jeffrey Streeter's avatar

Thank you, Kate, for your kind words and for identifying these key themes. An exhibition like this is a multiparty conversation, isn't it, with artists, curators and the viewers all having their say. It's a complex event which throws up as many questions as it settles.

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Rona Maynard's avatar

What an interesting, brave post. You are reckoning with the master, interrogating yourself, asking what you have missed. I'm not surprised the cutouts didn't move you. They are decorative but not profound. His greatest work reaches toward joy through suffering. I have looked at Matisse in many museums but the Barnes, in Philadelphia, is home to "Le Bonheur de Vivre" in which the artist's joy seems transcendently anchored in a deep understanding of sadness and loss. Francoise Gilot, in her memoir LIFE WITH PICASSO, has fascinating insights into Matisse and his rivalry with Picasso. Matisse once told Picasso, "We must talk to each other as much as we can. When one of us dies, there will be some things the other will never be able to talk of with anyone else."

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