Odalisque in a Gauze Skirt 1929

Henri Matisse created “Odalisque in a Gauze Skirt” using a pen and ink to hatch a seated figure into existence. The process feels like an unravelling, starting with the model’s gaze and working outwards, building form through accretion. Look at the skirt, see how a mass of short, dark lines creates the illusion of shadow and volume. I love that there’s no attempt to blend or smooth them out, it’s all right there on the surface, all process, all the time. The effect is quite different from, say, Ingres, whose Odalisques are all about perfect surfaces and smooth transitions. With Matisse, there's a feeling of constant adjustment, of the artist working through a problem and allowing us to witness the solution. It reminds me of Picasso in that sense, or maybe even de Kooning, artists who embraced the struggle to create, who let the process itself become the point.