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Matisse Window (work of art)

Artwork Info

Created
1964
Nationality
American
Birth/Death
1923-2002
Dimensions
72 x 56 in.
(182.9 x 142.2 cm)
Medium
Painting

Credit

Gift of Frances M. and William R. Roberson Jr.

Culture
American North Carolina

About

Many of the abstract expressionist paintings George Bireline made during the 1950s and early 1960s, however abstract, include the suggestion of a window. Bireline, on the faculty of North Carolina State University at the time, recognized the window image as a means of making a visual commentary on spatial relationships. A serious student of art history, he took as his starting point the traditional idea that a painting is a window into a fictional space. His next step was to paint a picture of a window itself. Matisse Window gives off a brilliant glow but exudes an appealing calm. Simply structured, the composition establishes a sense of space.

The title pays tribute to Bireline’s source of inspiration: Henri Matisse’s early-twentieth-century views of Nice, France, many of which incorporate window imagery.

tags: color, shapes, perspective, perception, variation

Images

  • George Bireline Matisse Window 1964 Painting

    Matisse Window