Painter with a Knife

The world knows and honors Henri Matisse for his color-drenched canvases. But, at 83, France's ailing master is anxious to be known for his work in another medium before he dies: his sculpture. There isn't much of it, and only rarely has it been shown. Last week London's Tate Gallery gladly obliged the old man with the largest exhibit of Matisse sculpture ever shown, 49 pieces, almost all of his output in clay and bronze.

Matisse's knife might never challenge his brush, but his work is still something any sculptor could be proud of. He began in 1899, at the age of 29, and worked in fits & starts until 1930, never long enough to develop a steady style. The gleaming bronzes at the Tate alternate between muscular realism and cubist distortion, are smooth and rough, delicate and grossly bulky. Yet each reflects the Matisse eye for form.

From Tigers to Torsos. Up to 1905, Sculptor Matisse is reasonably realistic and plainly the student of Rodin. There is a precise, crouched Tiger done in tense, slashing planes, a half-sized Slave, weary and hangdog. His women are more expressionistic, seem more like mere sketches for future work. His nude Madeleine, Nude Leaning on the Hands and Reclining Nude in Chemise are roughly scooped out to emphasize a side-slung hip, the languid sag of a relaxed body.

From 1906 on, Matisse's sculpture became more & more distorted as he flirted with cubism. The Tate exhibit shows a vigorously lumpy Reclining Nude, a small Torso with Head, unnaturally swaybacked, with cubes for breasts. As in his paintings, Matisse often did several studies leading up to a final sculpture; there are four heads of Jeannette, the first a standard, lifelike portrait, the last a fiercely distorted impression, squeezed and hacked out of shape.

And Back Again. For several years Matisse dropped his knife. When he picked it up again, the cycle was the same: first realism, then a- gradual swing forward until his bronzes became as stylized as his canvases. Matisse's Head of Marguerite (1915) is sharp and delicate, his Large Seated Nude (1925) a study in flat, glossy planes. At the end of Tate's exhibit are his two final works: Venus in a Shell, long-legged and featureless, her arms drawn up behind her head, and Tiara, a writhing, lumpy mass of hair and head. Their date is 1930, and as far as the world knows, Matisse has never done another sculpture.

London's critics hurried to the show, paid their respects to the master. Said the Times: "Very obviously the work of an exploring, ruthlessly experimental, and intensely serious mind." Matisse himself was on the French Riviera, propped up in bed and drawing a little. The show was his own idea. He had even designed a catalogue cover and an exhibition poster to go with it.

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