“Especially since the paper cutouts, our visual culture has been steeped in his aesthetic, to the point where, today, we don’t even realise that Matisse is at the origin of that,” Barat ...

Positive shapes are the shapes of actual objects. Negative shapes are the areas between these objects. The way positive and negative shapes act together creates the atmosphere of a composition.

Image caption, Empire State Building, Dwight Franklin ... Icarus Plate, Henri Matisse, 1947, paper cut out and gouache Henri Matisse played with ideas of positive and negative shapes with his ...