Odalisque, Blue Harmony 1937

Henri Matisse made *Odalisque, Blue Harmony* with oil on canvas, and what strikes me first is how the painting feels built, almost blocky, with these confident strokes of bold colors. It’s like seeing how a painting thinks. There’s this juicy green in the lower right of the painting, like a big glob of clay someone’s been messing with. It’s thick, opaque, and you can almost feel the drag of the brush as Matisse laid it down. He doesn’t try to hide the making; he revels in it. That flower stuck on the side feels almost slapdash, yet it holds its own. Matisse reminds me a little of Bonnard, but where Bonnard is all shimmer and light, Matisse is more about structure and guts. You get the sense that for Matisse, art’s an ongoing experiment, a constant back-and-forth where the journey’s as important as the destination. It leaves you with questions instead of answers, and that’s what makes it so alive.