I am loving Madeon, Icarus, a really happy, bouncy song described as 'Nu-French House' music by the artist. Whilst listening to it, I couldn't help but recall Henri Matisse's (1869–1954) 1947 painting of the same title. The bold, contrasting colours and heavy, robust outlines evoke the same feelings and, in a weird synethesia way, this painting sounds like Madeon's Nu-French hit.
After a long career which began in timidly exploring painting, applying techniques learnt in Ecole des Arts Decoratifs and Ecole des Beaux-Arts in what was by the time of the execution of Dinner Table (1897) a fairly established style of roughly executed imagery with rapid and obvious paint work, thanks to the work of the impressionists, Matisse's soon took hold of his practice and began a career in search of pure colour.
Under the Symbolist master Gustave Moreau, whose art and indeed movement set out to explore the relationship of the painting with an individual and centred on the ideals of escapism into the au dela, Matisse's work took on this quest for colour.
He was inspired by the work of J. M. W. Turner and the neo-impressionists which both informed his painting. Paul Signac in particular, with his work executed in tiny dots of colour, called pointilism was of particular influence in Matisse's work. Colour theory used by these artists allowed Matisse to better organise his ideas and achive a certain tranquility in his work, where there at first appears chaos.
Matisse moves into the light quite literally when he moves to Nice in the South of France. His paintings take on a decadent opulence and can be read as purely decorative. The do also however invoke feelings of regression to a primal state- Matisse's referencing of African tribal icons and the vogue for all things Japanese in this era show how he championed ideas of 'the other' and 'the primitive' in his work.
After a spell of illness, which pronounced Matisse bed-ridden and forced him to work in a small scale on book illustrations, he was persuaded by Greek publisher Emmanuel Teriade to produce a book of his gouache stencil and paper cut illustrations, called pochoir. It is from this book, Jazz, that Icarus comes. Whether Teriade was a direct influence for the ancient myth of Icarus, being Greek and all, is not anywhere documented, but could be possible. What I think is more likely becomes apparent when the myth is explored. It recounts the story of the boy, Icarus, son of Daedelus, a master craftsman. His longing to escape from Crete inspires Icarus’s father to build him a set of wings and fly to freedom, with the warning not to get to close to the sun for it will melt the wax holding the feathers into his wings. Icarus ignores these warnings and plunges into the Ionian Sea, where he drowns. The myth is used as a warning tale of failed ambition. Icarus is wingless in Matisse’s silhouette depicting him, showing that Matisse wished to portray him as he fell through the sky to his death. I don’t believe that Matisse was showing his own failed ambition in this piece, as he was forced through illness rather than drive to create it, but rather that the bright colours, the beating heart and the bold execution of the imagery show Matisse’s rejection of the idea he had failed as he turned the craft of stencilling illness had forced him in to, into the creation of an art book. This venture was fairly radical at the time as it advocated the craft of the artist above academic easel painting. Its success shows that Matisse did indeed rise above adversity and managed not to drown despite his wings failing him.
I hope Madeon has every success with his Icarus and that his ‘Nu-French House’ keeps him afloat.
