In 1947 Henri Matisse created a series of stunning paper cut-outs which he then arranged into compositions producing a unique work of art that has been referred to as the visual counterpart of jazz music. Using a pair of scissors I simply cut into the paper which had been painted beforehand and, in one single movement, joined line to colour and outline to surface. The circus provided the inspiration for more than half of the motifs - performing artists, the curtain, the star or flame, and balancing acts, with figures both standing and falling. The other images were Matisse's response to Jazz. Matisse, wrote Riva Castleman, has taught the eye to hear. In 2004 they were brilliantly reinterpreted by the great Parisian lithographers, Idem Mourlot. The intensity of colour is stunning. These lithographs were published in an edition of 1500.
