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Article: No more Mr Nice Guy; Matisse.(Hilary Spurling biography, exhibit of Henri Matisse)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- March 12, 2005
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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His detractors used to praise his bourgeois respectability while condemning his art. A new biography shows just how much Matisse's artistic ideas cost him
MATISSE always stood out among artists as a decent family man--a model of equanimity who sought serenity in his work. But appearances can be deceptive. Five years before he died, Matisse wrote, "If my story were ever to be written down truthfully, it would amaze everyone." Now Hilary Spurling has obliged in the riveting second volume of her biography of a radical artist and a tortured human being. Its publication coincides with the opening of an exhibition, "Matisse, His Art and His Textiles",which she has also ...