Fauvism (World of Art)

Les Fauves (the wild beasts) was the nickname given in 1905 to a group of painters led by Henri Matisse. Today, their paintings are among the most popular of all twentieth-century art. Yet when Matisse and his friends - Derain, Vlaminck, Marquet, Dufy and Braque among them - first exhibited their work, the reaction of public and critics was astonishment and often hostility. Using strong, even strident, colors, applied in a manner deriving from Cezanne, Gauguin and Van Gogh, the Fauves took painting back to its basic principles, inspired by primitive art, popular prints and children's paintings, and paved the way to Cubism. The artists, their work, their relationships, their achievements and the critical and commercial response to their work are discussed in this absorbing book, the first in many years to offer a reappraisal of Fauvism.

Fauvism was an extremely short-lived movement in modern painting, and an extremely important one as well. The name was attached to a group of paintings exhibited at the Paris Autumn Salon in 1905 by such artists as Henri Matisse and George Braque. But the group of painters that the name Fauvism referred to had moved on to other things within a year. Still, while Matisse may not have considered himself a Fauvist by 1906, he always acknowledged the movement's importance. "Fauvism isn't everything," he said, "but it is the foundation of everything." Author Sarah Whitfield does a fine job of providing context for the Fauvist movement and an understanding of its impact on modern art.