Matisse & Picasso
Picasso once said You have to be able to picture side by side everything Matisse and I were doing at the time. No one has ever looked at Matisse's painting more carefully than I; and no one has looked at mine more carefully than he.Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) are the acknowledged twin giants of modern art, between them having originated many of the most significant innovations of twentieth-century painting and sculpture. In spite of their initial rivalry and their different temperaments, each came to acknowledge the other as his only true equal. Françoise Gilot, Picasso's companion from 1945-53, has written: They were as complementary as red and green and as opposite as black and white intense mutual curiosity opened the door to their friendship.Gilot is a contributor to this film, along with Claude Picasso, Maya Widmaier-Picasso, Jacqueline Matisse-Monnier and others. With archive footage, photos and a wealth of examples of their work, the documentary traces the separate paths Matisse and Picasso followed, looks at their points of contact, and sheds light on how the genius of each artist nourished that of the other. Matisse said, I want an art of balance, of purity, that neither harasses nor worries. I have chosen to keep torment and worries inside me and only to paint the beauty of the world, while Picasso declared, The viewer must be wrenched from his torpor, shaken by the throat, made to recognise the world he lives in and for that you first have to take him out of it.