Over the last week I’ve been to see a couple of really interesting and enjoyable exhibitions at the Tate Modern: the art of Kazimir Malevich and Henri Matisse’s “Cut Outs”.

Malevich is a 20th century Russian artist, although he was born in Kiev, to Polish parents.  His art changed over time as radically as Picasso’s. In the first fifteen years of the century, his art mirrored many of the trends in the west dating back to the mid-19th century. Impressionism, Cubism, the idealisation of the peasant. The art was vivid, intriguing.

Self portrait

Woman on a tram

Peasant woman

Woodcutter

Then he decided to create his own movement: Suprematism. It reflected what was going on in an increasingly revolutionary Russia, I guess. His big statement was a black square. Art “beyond reason”.

Er, Black Square

Well yes. From this point I find his art interesting but not exciting or pleasing. He went back to more representative art in his later life. And that was good too. I’m always interested in the thinking behind the art-not-art. And often amused. But my instinct with Malevich, in his Suprematist period was, pull the other one, mate. This disqualifies me as an art critic, I know!

Everyone likes Matisse, don’t they? Beautiful colours, Mediterranean scenes, fresh, airy, look great on the wall of your living room. Nothing wrong with any of that. Art is allowed to look good.

The Cut Outs represent Matisse’s later work, in the 1940s and 50s, when his illnesses rendered him pretty immobile. So he began to cut out paper shapes, painted in vivid colours, and assembled them – or had them assembled by his assistants. The shapes were shifted around until his vision was fulfilled.

There’s something quite child-like about this. Who hasn’t, if they have children, painted bits of paper and made weird pictures with them? It is raw creativity, that takes no expertise, no prior experience. And it is such fun!

Yes, Matisse was more sophisticated than this, and grew increasingly sophisticated over the years of the Cut Outs. His work was described as a fusion of painting and sculpture.  But the pleasure in the paintings is primal and child-like. I loved the colours, the shapes. I wasn’t theorising, like I had to with Malevich. It was just pure pleasure. I liked the way he got involved with churches, and his “Blue Nudes” period, and the fact that he made a design for some limited edition carpets, negotiated a commission with some rich Americans. This is exactly what the Renaissance painters, Rubens and so many others did. Arts has always had patrons, who sometimes just want something nice, or big, for their wall!

Here are a few samples from the Matisse Cut Out canon.

The fall of Icarus

One of the Blue Nudes

Two Masks – I imagined it was a man crying

The Mermaid and the Parakeet – spot them!

The Snail – think about it!

The Matisse exhibition ends on 7 September, so get in there if you haven’t seen it! Malevich runs until 26 October.