Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 46 minutes ago
On the surface, Henri Matisse’s artist book "Jazz" is a captivating experiment with color and line, in which the artist depicted his memories of Parisian music halls, the circus, trips to Tahiti, folktales, and mythology. But the book's almost whimsical abstracted forms mask the harsh circumstances of its creation in early 1940s France: Matisse’s painful recovery from abdominal surgery, the country's Nazi occupation, and the unprecedented violence of World War II.
Curator Emily Ziemba shares a closer look at the darker undercurrents of this vibrant artist’s book—one of the most important of the 20th century.
On the surface, Henri Matisse’s artist book "Jazz" is a captivating experiment with color and line, in which the artist depicted his memories of Parisian music halls, the circus, trips to Tahiti, folktales, and mythology. But the book's almost whimsical abstracted forms mask the harsh circumstances of its creation in early 1940s France: Matisse’s painful recovery from abdominal surgery, the country's Nazi occupation, and the unprecedented violence of World War II.
Curator Emily Ziemba shares a closer look at the darker undercurrents of this vibrant artist’s book—one of the most important of the 20th century.
