Modern Classics - About the artist and his painting:

Henri Matisse (1869-1954) is one of the most important modern artists. He was a French painter, drawer, graphic artist and sculptor. In his efforts to break away from Impressionism, he developed his own style and became the founder of Fauvism (Fauvism = artistic movement and painting style of the “Fauves“ or “the wild beasts“). He developed the possibility of creating spatial effects in his paintings solely through the two-dimensional application of pure colors and forms. This style of painting characterizes his later paintings.

The Dance (1909, oil on canvas, 102.2 x 153.6 in)

From today‘s perspective, Matisse‘s “Dance“ seems like a harmless image celebrating life, but in its time it was an affront to the general development of art. It freed itself from all possibilities of interpretation, historical references and profound meanings with which the artists of the second half of the 19th century loaded their paintings. Matisse abandoned refined surface textures and deceptively real representations, instead painting a striking and simple composition of form and color. The painting shows five naked people dancing in stark color contrast to the background, which consists of two areas in blue and green separated by a curved line. The spatial impression is created solely by the arrangement of the rather two-dimensional figures in a circle. For Matisse, “The Dance“ depicted an expression of the joy of life and sensuality.

What does this resource contain?

• Postcards (5.8 x 4.1 in) 
• Miniature (4.3 x 2.9 in) 
• Study painting (7.5 x 5 in)
  
• Group Work Poster (37.8 x 25.2 in)

How can I make the group work poster?

1. Print the poster templates on white printing paper.
   
2. Color or paint the individual sheets according to the template or your own imagination. Make sure that the dotted lines around the outside remain visible.
   
3. Once dry, cut out the colored sheets along the dotted lines and sort them- each letter in a separate pile. Then sort them by number so that 1 is on top and 5 is on the bottom.
   
4. Glue all ‘A’ sheets together. To do so, apply glue to the long tab on the right side of sheet A1 and glue sheet A2 on top of it so that its left edge is aligned with the solid line. Glue A3 to A2, A4 to A3 and so on until you get to A5. Repeat this process with all rows.
   
5. Now glue row B’s upper edge to the tab on the lower edge of row A. Then glue row C to row B and so on until all rows are glued together. Your poster is finished!