After Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954). 3 limited edition serigraphs by Michel Caza, including (1) "Danseuse Acrobatique" edition 85 of 975 (2) "Palme Blanches sur Frond Rouge" edition 715 of 975 and (3) "Fleur a Quatre Petales" edition 242 of 975. Each is numbered in pencil at the lower left and signed with the printed signature in the image only and estate stamped in the lower right corner of the image: "Serigraphie executee par Michel Caza d'apres la gouache decoupee originale par Henri Matisse; Editions des Nouvelles Images, France, prntr; Spadem, France, pub." A fabulous trio of colored serigraphs after Matisse's colored paper cutouts, each one mounted in a metal frame with a linen matte under glass. Size of "Danseuse Acrobatique": 16" L x 19.5" W (40.6 cm x 49.5 cm) Size (framed): 25.25" L x 21.75" W (64.1 cm x 55.2 cm)

On the versos of each frame, is an authentication label from La Societe de Verification de la Nouvelle Gravure Internationale of New York and Paris with the following statement from John Russell: "ABOUT THE GOUACHES DECOUPEES OF HENRI MATISSE. "An Old Man cutting up brightly colored paper might seem to be frittering away his final years with the pastimes of a child. Yet colored paper and scissors in the hands of one old man - Henri Matisse - produced great art. Matisse's colored paper cutouts seem to generate their own sunlight, their wry simplicity is so typical of the artist that they provide a fitting conclusion to his lifework. 'To cut right into color makes me think of a sculptor's carving into stone,' he wrote of his new art. The cut-paper compositions were the work of a man very near death, but they were like signals from the springtime of life . . . Symbols of absolute purity. All are charged with Matisse's clarity of vision. They remain the final monuments to a master of design and color." (John Russell in "The World of Matisse")

One of the founders of Fauvism, Matisse was a leader of "Les Fauves" (wild beasts) - a group of avant garde artists who painted in bold colors, shocking their audiences with their exaggerated hues. During this early modern period, the artistic establishment was offended by their paintings, because they saw the Fauves' use of color as wild and unrestrained. 'Les Fauves' argued that color possessed a spiritual quality that was inextricably connected to emotions, and for this reason, they used the most highly saturated colors. Furthermore, rather than use color to describe their subject matter in a naturalistic way, color was intended to express the artist's feelings about his/her subject. These ideas liberated future generations of artists to explore color in modernist compositions.

Provenance: private Boulder, Colorado, USA collection

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Each serigraph is mounted in a metal frame with a linen matte under glass and has not been examined outside the frame. Each is signed with the printed signature in the image only and estate stamped in the lower right corner of the image. Each is numbered in pencil at the lower left. On the versos of each frame, is an authentication label from La Societe de Verification de la Nouvelle Gravure Internationale of New York and Paris with an excerpt from John Russell's "The World of Matisse".