Portrait with Pink and Blue Face 1936

Curator: Standing before us, painted in 1936, is Henri Matisse's "Portrait with Pink and Blue Face". Editor: Wow, it hits you, doesn't it? That split face… It’s almost jarring, but strangely compelling. There’s something wonderfully unresolved about it. Like a question mark painted on canvas. Curator: Exactly! And that unresolved feeling is central to understanding it, I think. Looking at the oil on canvas, notice how he's divided the face so deliberately. It's pink on one side and an almost spectral blue on the other. Editor: The blue side gives me this almost melancholic vibe. The bright pink, though, fights back against it, offering some joy, almost a playful touch with those red lips. Are we looking at some duality that he sees in himself perhaps? Curator: Could be. Think about masks; consider the weight of being looked at, especially when you're an artist constantly in the public eye. Could it be about performance, and the hidden self? The tension between the social face and the private one? Editor: Masks. That’s a sharp read. Given how often artists return to self-portraiture, is this one just another moment of the artist examining their face in the mirror? Why is it halved like this though? I am still unsure what to read from this division. Curator: It’s interesting, right? In terms of its psychological symbolism, that division speaks volumes. What's interesting to me, is this work appears relatively late in Matisse's career; yet it still presents us with this sort of experiment and daring that reminds me of the Fauves. The shirt she's wearing also seems to push toward Fauvism. The background is also halved between darkness and a pure yellow, it looks quite raw actually. Editor: True! I'm glad you mentioned the background. It’s so simplistic, but it adds another layer of contrast. Like two opposing forces pressing in. What about the impressionistic aspect here though? I thought that was relatively earlier in his career. Curator: Well, one could perhaps connect the pure and unmixed color blocks to certain elements from impressionism. Although there is nothing blurry and fleeting here at all... It feels like Matisse looked inward here. To attempt an honesty that few artists achieve in such striking clarity. What do you take from it overall? Editor: Overall, it is as if I just unlocked a secret or just stumbled upon an argument frozen in pigment, that makes me think. It doesn't neatly resolve itself which I value. It reminds us that we contain multitudes, battling ideas, it stays with you. What about you? Curator: I agree completely. I appreciate his boldness and also his sincerity that goes straight through the artifice of persona. I see courage in the use of color and raw visual vocabulary to cut across what one can say. This portrait asks so much, of both artist and audience.