Black is a Colour (1946)
Before, when I didn’t know what colour to put down, I put down black. Black is a force. I depend on black to simplify the construction. now I’ve given up blacks. The use of Blacks as a colour in the same way as the other colours –yellow, blue, or red is not a new thing.
The Orientals made use of black as a colour, notably the Japanese in their prints. Closer to us all, I recall a painting by Manet in which the velvet Jacket of a young man with a straw hat is painted in a blunt lucid black.
In the portrait of Zacharie Astruc by Manet, a new velvet jacket is also expressed by a blunt luminous black. Doesn’t my painting of the Morocains use a grand Black which is as luminous as the other colours in the painting.
Like all evolution, that of black in painting has been made in jumps. but since the Impressionists it seems to have made continuous progress, taking a more and more important part in colour representation, comparable to that of the double-bass as a solo instrument.
Essay from the book: Matisse On Art - by Jack D. Flam
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