Witness, 2011

Pigment Print and Gouache on Canvas

In her 2012 series, It’s Time, the awareness of the passage of time takes precedence as she lets go entirely of any references to art history. She explores new imagery, such as Arabic calligraphy, even at times reorienting the words. These collage-like paintings are filled with calligraphy displaying photographic images of luxury brand watch faces, suggesting the continual passage of change.  

By incorporating language, Matisse expands the realm of seeing to include reading. Either for the meaning of the words or simply for the visual impact of the letterforms. This flickering between seeing and reading reverberates throughout this series only to continue more so in her following work.

Reminiscent of the decorative, paper-cut collages of one of her famous grandfathers, Henri Matisse (and the other being Marcel Duchamp) these works are derived from collage-filled notebooks from the artist’s travels, which she cuts and geometrically divides to use as a model for her paintings.