Cut-Out Fun with Matisse

The handsome paper-over-board Adventures in Art series continues with three titles about 20th-century artists. Edward Hopper: Summer at the Seashore by Deborah Lyons displays many of the artist's most famous paintings, watercolors and drawings of Cape Cod's summer landscapes and lighthouses. The text recounts significant events in Hopper's life and discusses the paintings' inspirations. Frida Kahlo: The Artist in the Blue House by Magdalena Holzhey tells the story of the Mexican artist's often difficult personal life, including many vintage photographs of Kahlo; she also offers readers an eyeful of Kahlo's intriguing, often surrealistic paintings along with lucid discussions of some of the mysterious images. Matisse: Cut-Out Fun with Matisse by Nina and Max Hollein examines the paper cut-outs the artist created late in life, when he was often too weak to stand and paint. The text offers a fictionalized story to link the boldly stylized images depicted here, and ends with suggestions for making cut-outs and perforated sheets of brightly colored paper with which to try one's hand.