Diving into Henri Matisse's waters : multifaceted perspectives of time and space in The swimming pool

Abstract

 This paper aims to demonstrate the significance of Henri Matisse’s cut-outs in the discourse of modern art by analyzing his cut-out work The Swimming Pool (1952). The paper will explain how multifaceted perspectives of time and space can be experienced when viewing the work, an engagement made possible by the cut-outs’ medium-multiplicity, material flexibility and conceptual potentials. The discussion of this paper will begin with a focus on Matisse’s adoption of the cut-out technique, the receptions upon their first appearance in the late 1940s and that from the recent literature. The second section will analyse the forms, materiality, and original installation of The Swimming Pool to compare cut-outs in relation to other mediums of art, such as painting, sculpture, architecture, and installation. Analysis of this section will draw on two scholars’ theories – Clement Greenberg’s essay “Modernist Painting” (1961) and his disciple, Rosaline Krauss’s essay “Sculpture in the Expanded Field” (1974) to demonstrate how The Swimming Pool reflects the changing theoretical frameworks on art in the 20th century, and therefore can be seen as the epitome of art’s transition from Greenberg’s formalist “purity” to Krauss’s post-medium “expanded field”, where art is no longer defined by its medium but by its logic of operation. The last section will examine how the work might have helped the artist arrive at a solution for his lifelong artistic quest.