Matisse Cut Outs

In need of distraction, we took ourselves off to Tate Modern to see the big Matisse exhibition, which concentrates on his latter years.

In search of purity of colour reproduction, Matisse realised that the cut-out moquettes he'd been creating as part of his prep for paintings were themselves artworks, and he pursued this new form obsessively from his wheelchair. He created a language of shapes inspired by trips to Tahiti earlier in his life - palm trees, seaweed, fruit, birds - and these evolve and repeat throughout this body of work.

The scale of some of these vibrant creations is awe-inspiring... This one is called The Parakeet and the Mermaid.