Out of the Blue! Blue And Other Colors, with Henri Matisse

GREEN IN THE BACK
GREEN IN THE FRONT,

PURPLE AND BLUE,

AND THERE'S A SPLASH

OF PINK, TOO!

Henri Matisse was near the end of his career, and his hands were less able to paint fine details, he found that he had not lost his desire to make art, and he turned to a new medium, that of cut-paper collage. His sense of color and line and texture were still that of a master, and that period of his work is the stuff of Phaidon Books, new book for the youngest children, Blue and Other Colors: with Henri Matisse (First Concepts With Fine Artists) (Phaidon, 2016).

In this beautiful little board book, Matisse plays with ground, foreground and background, as colors reverse position, and plays withs hape in a way that is intrinsically appealing to the very young, honing their fresh, young eyes and perception with his compositions of color set against bright white backgrounds.

Beginning and ending with blue, but including all the primary and secondary colors as well, this concept book is a brilliant introduction to the use of color in design, color recognition, and the art of composition. The New York Times Review of Books says, "his lovely, well-conceived example seems liable to leave a lasting impression on a little mind,"