Description
Book SynopsisRecounts the publication history of nearly fifty books illustrated by Henri Matisse, including Lettres portugaises, Mallarmé’s Poésies, and Matisse's own Jazz. Explores his illustration methods, typographic precepts, literary sensibilities, and opinions about the role of the artist in the publication process.
Trade Review“A full and riveting account of Matisse’s evolving relationship with the Book.”
—Peter Mendelsund The New York Times Book Review
“This illuminating book considers Matisse’s illustrated books in admirable detail, giving unprecedented attention to the collaborative nature of Matisse’s book projects and to the relationship between their aesthetic qualities and the various technical factors that went into their production.”
—Jack Flam,author of Matisse: The Man and His Art, 1869–1918
“Scholarly interest in this type of art production has in the past been relegated to a secondary position, due to, until fairly recently, the tendency of art historians to consider bookmaking a craft rather than a “high-art” process. Bidwell’s catalogue rectifies that lack as it provides detailed and precise descriptions coupled to informed, informative essays on the history and background of each book and, by extension, the activities of creative book production in Paris during the first half of the 20th century.”
—Choice
“Graphic Passion more than compensates for those of us unable to attend the exhibition that accompanied it at the Morgan Library and Museum.”
—John Randle Matrix
Table of Contentscontents
Director’s Foreword
Peggy Fogelman
Matisse Book Illustrations
Michael M. Baylson, Frances Batzer Baylson
Mallarmé’s Poésies:
“I will be vindicated by my maquette” Jay McKean Fisher
Introduction
John Bidwell
Catalogue Notes
Appendix: How I Made My Books
Henri Matisse
Sources and Abbreviations
Index
Acknowledgments
