aromatisse is an artist who can help us
handle suffering and become more
optimistic but to understand him best we
need to think about the role of happy
art the cultural early get nervous about
cheerful or sweetheart they worry that
pretty pieces of work are in denial
about how bad the state of the world is
and how much suffering there is in every
life look at this picture of sailing
boats shooting about in the
Mediterranean beyond the palm trees with
a chin see lovely woman sitting on the
sofa has the artist forgotten that the
world is filled with inequality
corruption and war the fear is that we
might get so absorbed in having a nice
time that we’ll forget about the bad
things and won’t trouble ourselves to do
anything about them however these
worries are generally misplaced far from
taking to rosy and sentimental of view
of things in general we tend to suffer
from excessive gloom our problem is
actually that we feel debilitating the
small and weak in the face of our
troubles it’s because we feel
overwhelmed and helpless that we record
into ourselves cheerfulness is an
achievement and hope is something to be
celebrated optimism is important because
many outcomes are determined by how much
of it we bring to the task it’s an
important ingredient to success this
flies in the face of an elite view that
skill is the primary requirement to a
good life yet in many cases the
difference between success and failure
is determined by nothing more than one
sense of what is possible we stand in
need of tools that can help preserve our
more hopeful dispositions and art can
help us one of the primary things that I
can do for us is bolster our spirits and
help us see the good in life so that we
can face its challenges and bear its
disappointment with greater resilience
determination and hope the dancers and
Matisse’s dance are not in denial of the
troubles of this planet the picture
should not be taken as a suggestion that
all as well and that women are always
taken delight in each other’s existence
but from within a normal and that is a
conflicted and imperfect relationship
with reality one can look at the women
as an encouragement they put one in
for the blithe carefree part of oneself
which can help on coping with the
inevitable rejections at humiliations
matisse new huge amount about suffering
a glance at one of his self-portraits
shows us as much his ability to harbor
such complexity should build our
confidence in the attitude of his
pleasing hopeful charming work while
Matisse knew all about tragedy his
acquaintance with it made him all the
more alive to its opposites he was born
in 1869 into a relatively prosperous
family he wasn’t supposed to be an
artist his father was a grain and
hardware merchant and was keen that his
son should have a lucrative safe and
respectable career as a lawyer in his
early 20s Matisse became desperate to
leave the law office but his father was
opposed eventually his father relented
and allowed Matisse to study art but
only if he kept the most conservative
and traditional styles the message from
his father was keep painting like this
and I’ll keep paying your allowance in
order to develop as a painter of bright
joyful and sensuous paintings Matisse
had to face down his father embrace
poverty and be reviled by his teachers
and mentors in the years before the
outbreak of the first world war Matisse
began to build up a successful career he
was selling a few paintings and getting
well-known and adventurous and artistic
circles just as he seemed to be making
it the whole world started to fall apart
yet in a year of the battle of the somme
Matisse painted the window it’s not that
Matisse don’t care about the trenches
the day’s journey from Paris but that
their looming presence intensified his
sense of the loveliness of a glimpse of
a tree through the gap and curtains or
his delight in the pattern on the
floorboards or the sense of the
freshness and charm of a bowl of flowers
and a simple but unpretentious apartment
in the city
it’s as if he is reminding himself and
us that these things still exist
they haven’t been destroyed it’s not the
work of somebody who’s indifferent it is
created in recognition of how easily we
could be paralyzed by despair and a hint
of light green leaves through the window
might speak kindly to us even today when
we’re overburdened by the sense of how
much weight life has later there were
more private traumas Matisse was
diagnosed with
test lung cancer he was involved in a
protracted and highly painful legal
dispute with his estranged wife and
still his cheerful fellows didn’t waver
in 1942 when Paris had fallen and the
German 6th army was advancing through
Russia towards the southern oil fields
Matisse painted a number of paintings of
dancers with fabulous legs reclining on
big soft armchairs the most poignant of
his cheerful hopeful works were created
right at the end of his life in around
1950 when he was in his 80s he had been
an invalid for years mostly bedridden
but occasionally able to get around in
his wheelchair he knew he was facing
death the deep blue and yellow and the
simple pattern of the stained glass
windows seemed to glow with delight and
existence but Matisse wasn’t expressing
a cheerfulness he had recently
experienced the vulnerable suffering
great artist was attempting to ward off
his own fears of gloom and despondency
and he was reminding us through his
genius that there is nothing as serious as knowing how to hope
handle suffering and become more
optimistic but to understand him best we
need to think about the role of happy
art the cultural early get nervous about
cheerful or sweetheart they worry that
pretty pieces of work are in denial
about how bad the state of the world is
and how much suffering there is in every
life look at this picture of sailing
boats shooting about in the
Mediterranean beyond the palm trees with
a chin see lovely woman sitting on the
sofa has the artist forgotten that the
world is filled with inequality
corruption and war the fear is that we
might get so absorbed in having a nice
time that we’ll forget about the bad
things and won’t trouble ourselves to do
anything about them however these
worries are generally misplaced far from
taking to rosy and sentimental of view
of things in general we tend to suffer
from excessive gloom our problem is
actually that we feel debilitating the
small and weak in the face of our
troubles it’s because we feel
overwhelmed and helpless that we record
into ourselves cheerfulness is an
achievement and hope is something to be
celebrated optimism is important because
many outcomes are determined by how much
of it we bring to the task it’s an
important ingredient to success this
flies in the face of an elite view that
skill is the primary requirement to a
good life yet in many cases the
difference between success and failure
is determined by nothing more than one
sense of what is possible we stand in
need of tools that can help preserve our
more hopeful dispositions and art can
help us one of the primary things that I
can do for us is bolster our spirits and
help us see the good in life so that we
can face its challenges and bear its
disappointment with greater resilience
determination and hope the dancers and
Matisse’s dance are not in denial of the
troubles of this planet the picture
should not be taken as a suggestion that
all as well and that women are always
taken delight in each other’s existence
but from within a normal and that is a
conflicted and imperfect relationship
with reality one can look at the women
as an encouragement they put one in
for the blithe carefree part of oneself
which can help on coping with the
inevitable rejections at humiliations
matisse new huge amount about suffering
a glance at one of his self-portraits
shows us as much his ability to harbor
such complexity should build our
confidence in the attitude of his
pleasing hopeful charming work while
Matisse knew all about tragedy his
acquaintance with it made him all the
more alive to its opposites he was born
in 1869 into a relatively prosperous
family he wasn’t supposed to be an
artist his father was a grain and
hardware merchant and was keen that his
son should have a lucrative safe and
respectable career as a lawyer in his
early 20s Matisse became desperate to
leave the law office but his father was
opposed eventually his father relented
and allowed Matisse to study art but
only if he kept the most conservative
and traditional styles the message from
his father was keep painting like this
and I’ll keep paying your allowance in
order to develop as a painter of bright
joyful and sensuous paintings Matisse
had to face down his father embrace
poverty and be reviled by his teachers
and mentors in the years before the
outbreak of the first world war Matisse
began to build up a successful career he
was selling a few paintings and getting
well-known and adventurous and artistic
circles just as he seemed to be making
it the whole world started to fall apart
yet in a year of the battle of the somme
Matisse painted the window it’s not that
Matisse don’t care about the trenches
the day’s journey from Paris but that
their looming presence intensified his
sense of the loveliness of a glimpse of
a tree through the gap and curtains or
his delight in the pattern on the
floorboards or the sense of the
freshness and charm of a bowl of flowers
and a simple but unpretentious apartment
in the city
it’s as if he is reminding himself and
us that these things still exist
they haven’t been destroyed it’s not the
work of somebody who’s indifferent it is
created in recognition of how easily we
could be paralyzed by despair and a hint
of light green leaves through the window
might speak kindly to us even today when
we’re overburdened by the sense of how
much weight life has later there were
more private traumas Matisse was
diagnosed with
test lung cancer he was involved in a
protracted and highly painful legal
dispute with his estranged wife and
still his cheerful fellows didn’t waver
in 1942 when Paris had fallen and the
German 6th army was advancing through
Russia towards the southern oil fields
Matisse painted a number of paintings of
dancers with fabulous legs reclining on
big soft armchairs the most poignant of
his cheerful hopeful works were created
right at the end of his life in around
1950 when he was in his 80s he had been
an invalid for years mostly bedridden
but occasionally able to get around in
his wheelchair he knew he was facing
death the deep blue and yellow and the
simple pattern of the stained glass
windows seemed to glow with delight and
existence but Matisse wasn’t expressing
a cheerfulness he had recently
experienced the vulnerable suffering
great artist was attempting to ward off
his own fears of gloom and despondency
and he was reminding us through his
genius that there is nothing as serious as knowing how to hope
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