Matisse and the "Fauves"

We have a lot of great museums here in Vienna and "Albertina" is - in my opinion - one of the best. Every exhibition is worth seeing. Since September there was this extraordinary show with works of Matisse and some of his colleagues, showing the begin of the Avant-garde movement. And today - on one of the last days of the exhibition - I managed to get there. What a pity it would have been if I had missed it!

When exhibited for the first time in Paris in 1905 the works of Matisse, Derain, Vlaminch, Dufy and Van Dongen caused a lot of irritation, because they broke with realism. Therefore they were dubbed "les Fauves" (= "the wild beasts") by critics. Shadows were painted in red and blue, faces in orange, buildings in purple and perspective was not taken into account. A scandal at that time and the most wonderful paintings today. I'm so glad I made it!