Artemis wroteI was tracking that bird and grabbing shots when the sun suddenly appeared in my viewfinder and zapped my eye for a minute. I was surprised the image came out as well as it did. No deeper meaning intended.Quick phone snap of "Icare" by Henri Matisse that I took last month at an Italian museum of modern and contemporary art.
Matisse included this vibrant "pochoir" (1946) in his his "Jazz" art book (1947). He was 76 at that time. The text on the left is just the final page of 7 pages of personal thoughts (hence, can only be better understood if you also read the 6 previous pages of a chapter he entitled "L'Avion" ["The Airplane"]).
IMHO it's about freedom and putting things into perspective (despite the Icarus title refering to 'hubris'). It resulted from his personal observation of a temporary, grand, majestic feeling of ultimate freedom and awe experienced instantly after ascending through the clouds with an airplane ("the splendor of the sun as well as the perception of unlimited space (...) a moment so free." - "la splendeur du soleil ainsi que la perception de l'espace illimité (...) un moment si libres.").
