Decoupage
Techniques. Resources. Creative Processes. Genres
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Decoupage
Decoupage comes from French “découper”, and means “cut out.”
The technique consists in cutting painted papers or clothes, and then paste them on different surfaces or objects with ornamental purposes. A layer of transparent varnish is usually applied as a finish.
It is used for decoration since the Middle Age. One of the greatest artists of the 20th century and the most important of the fauves, Henri Matisse, started to use this resource at the end of his career —when painting smoothly was difficult for him— and left an important legacy for the history of art.
Decoupage was very functional to his “color revolution.”
When using painted papers with gouache and later cut, there is no detail in the work that can call the attention in contrast to the prominence of color. The technique fascinated him: he no longer had to draw a contour to color it later; he drew directly in the color.
Matisse defined this technique as “drawing with scissors.”
Image: Icarus (1947). Matisse
Recommended links:
Timeline: Moments of Henri Matisse.
“I do not literally paint the table but the emotion it produces upon me.”
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