The “poetics of the unfinished”: La Danse by Matisse
The invention of photography released painting from any need to copy nature...to present emotion as directly as possible and by the simplest means.”
--Henri Matisse
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La Danse I , 1909, Museum of Modern Art, New York City
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La Danse II, 1910. State Hermitage Museum. St. Petersburg, Russia.
Matisse has been called “the great twentieth century poet of color.” In his “La Danse” he has successfully set forth an abstraction of reality, while not losing its representational quality. Matisse has used curved lines, soft outlines and outstanding color to complete the effect.
The artist famously led the briefly dazzling Fauvist movement ---the first movement of this modern period -- and one in which color reigned supreme. The advent of Fauvism is usually dated by the appearance of the Fauve paintings in Paris at the Salon d’Automine in 1905. Other artists of the day, such as Vlaminck, Derain, Bracque and Dufy also achieved prominence with their Fauvist works.
Fauvism got its name from art critic Louis Vauxcelles who compared the art style to “wild beasts” due to the purposeful use of color as an expression of emotional force. Fauvism flourished for only a few short years, however, and was eclipsed by the burgeoning Cubist movement. This is too bad, because it was an exciting experiment of the use of vibrant luminous color and it remains one of my favorite developments in art history.
La Danse is an expression of the transitory nature of earthly joy in the timeless Bacchanal of dancers on a vibrant green earth under a vivid blue sky. Matisse was commissioned by a wealthy Russian art collector in 1909 to do this work as a part of a series to decorate the opulent staircase in his large Moscow home. Unfortunately the October Revolution of 1917 brought the confiscation of art collector’s home, leaving him to become simply the curator of his own house. With the advent of Stalinism the painting was taken to the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. But as the Cold War heated up, it was at risk of being cut into pieces. Fortunately it was saved by museum curators who successfully hid it from view.
In 1909 Matisse painted the preliminary version as a study for La Danse II, completed in 2010. La Danse I is now held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, a gift from Nelson Rockefeller in honor of Alfred H. Barr, Jr., who was an American art historian and MoMA’s first director. Barr was a dynamic force in the development of popular attitudes toward modern art.
What I see in this work is a group evocation of “la figura serpentinata” so celebrated by the Mannerists, although for the 16th century Mannerists the serpentinata was typically columnar. Here it is an oval chain of twisting bodies, not in agonistes, but in human pleasure, laughter and enjoyment of the moment.
It is interesting that here Matisse introduces a note of uncertainty: two of the dancer’s hands don’t quite reach each other and the circle is not complete...life is an incomplete circle, much as we wish it were not...and much as we long for that closure...as art historian and author of a monograph on “La Danse,” Federico Zeri has noted “This is the poetics of the ‘unfinished,’
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dramatically expressed by Michelangelo in the 16th century.” (Michelangelo actually articulated this view as an aesthetic of the “non finito” in art).
As we can see, the hands that do not connect are not clearly defined...he is suggesting the blur of motion, the suddenly thrust hand from the lunging dancer as she tries to reach for the hand in front of her. Every brushstroke otherwise -- long and short -- defining the dancers’ bodies is necessary and none is nonessential. Matisse’s architecture of their human, if somewhat sex indeterminate, bodies is incredibly precise and noble.
The most breathtaking “moment” of the painting occurs at the pivot of the figure on the far left as a result of the break in the circle of hands. The elegant turn and hand-over-hand grasp to the dancer on his right and the brush stroke defining his body seem effortless. Another brush stroke of incredible beauty and grace occurs with the placement of the foot of the dancer on the far left as he turns. It is a moment of wordless poetry on canvas and echoes the arched foot of Michelangelo’s Libyan sibyl in the Sistine Chapel.
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Bravo, Henri..
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your visit accordingly. It is an absolute must in places like the National Gallery in London where the masterpieces are everywhere! And the Louvre and the Uffizi are impossible without a plan. I always suggest at least two if not more visits in such museums.
My back now complains loudly if I am not careful...
again 
The UC Santa Barbara Art Museum has this collection on loan from a local couple who evidently have been collecting for years. Unlike going to LACMA, which is an all-day affair for us, UCSB is practically at our doorstep.
"How to Make the Universe Right: The Art of the Shaman in Vietnam and Southern China" -- scrolls and ceremonial objects , costumes, masks, and instruments. I had to buy the catalog, as the text by Trian Nguyen promises to be good. Even without the text to tell me so, I could see the marriage of Taoism and Buddhism, Animism, and Confucian ancestor worship. The Confucian influence is so hierarchical: hierarchies of gods, of spirits, of wisdom masters, rank on rank.
One feels replete after such an excursion.
You make an interesting point about Greek urn painting. It brought to my mind the way viewing the Elgin Marbles sent Keats into ekphrastic raptures with his Odes and how one art inspires and influences another.
I'm venturing into Twombly next, probably in a couple of weeks. So much winter weather has kept me inside so I've been able to think through some of the high notes of modern American art. Then, hopefully, I'll get my Baroque on with some Bernini...
Thanks for commenting! 
