KAREN WILKIN
89
Summing Up
High points along the way, too numerous to mention. Each VISIt
brings new revelations, new cross-references, new internal correspon–
dences. Perhaps even more impressive than individual works, potent as
they are, is the overwhelming effect of that lifetime's enterprise: Matisse's
total surrender to the demands of his perception and his emotion in the
face of that perception. What comes through most strongly is the sense
of uncompromising, pitiless, questioning visual intelligence - not of dec–
orativeness or seductive color or even beauty, in the highest sense of the
word. The tension between plasticity and a two-dimensional revelation
of that plasticity, between reserve and sensuality, between innovation and
reverence for tradition becomes more apparent the longer we look.
A final note: John Elderfield's catalogue essay is a persuasive guide to
Matisse's private paradise and an illuminating discussion of the relation–
ship between Picasso and Matisse, or perhaps more accurately, the rela–
tionship between
perceptions
of Matisse and Picasso. The chronology is
excellent, informative, and until the long-awaited
catalogue raisonne
comes along, an invaluable tool. While the color plates, alas, are inaccu–
rate and disappointing, the comparative material and photographs of
Matisse and his world are first-rate.
