Color and alienation: Matisse's theory of art (Henri Matisse, France)

Through a close examination of the artist's texts and statements, "Color and Alienation" asserts that Matisse's ideas form a complex theory of art. The application of Julia Kristeva's (1941-- ) theory of signification is used as the primary method of interpretation. Kristeva's conceptual model addresses the particular subjective conditions that Matisse encounters in practice and incorporates into his ideas on art. The study focuses on two principal aspects of Matisse's art theory: Matisse's definition of artistic meaning, and his conception of the artist in relation to the materials of practice and the work of art. Matisse conceives his practice in terms of an undifferentiated continuum of subject and object linked on the basis of materiality---the corporeality of the subject, the physical dimension of the drives, and the substance of pigment. Matisse defines artistic meaning through his concept of expression. He describes expression as an essential, mutually dependent relation between the incommensurable categories of thought and material. The mechanics of expression pivot on a fluid and reciprocal traversal of conscious and unconscious registers of existence. Artistic expression, therefore, is the culmination of a dynamic process that unfolds through the contradiction of the heterogeneity of thought and material within the singularity of the artist as subject, a process that is articulated in the work of art. Although Matisse's concept of materiality posits the instinctual drives as the origin of artistic expression, thought, as a symbolic activity, is the decisive factor in its realization. Matisse's ideas constitute a modern formulation of the status of the artist as subject. His view of the role of instinct and symbol in artistic production demands a redefinition of some of the traditional ideas of art, such as mimesis and artistic harmony, and points to a reformulation of an aesthetics of form within a post-modern context.