{"id":392,"date":"2025-09-12T14:38:27","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T18:38:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/modern-and-contemporary-art-our-highlights\/?p=392"},"modified":"2025-09-16T11:02:45","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T15:02:45","slug":"goldfish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/modern-and-contemporary-art-our-highlights\/2025\/09\/12\/goldfish\/","title":{"rendered":"Goldfish"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"colorful
Goldfish<\/em><\/a>, 1912 by Henri Matisse in Pushkin Museum of Art, Moscow<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Goldfish<\/em>, Henri Matisse, 1912<\/h2>\n

By Anonymous<\/h3>\n

I chose Goldfish<\/em>\u00a0by Henri Matisse because the artwork reminds me of a home far away from home. Back in Antigua, during the rainy season, my parents used to collect baby fish that washed up on the road and placed them in a bowl. We didn\u2019t keep them as pets, they were only there for me to admire while we waited for the storm to pass. Two days after a flood, they would release them into a stream. The fishbowl in the artwork reminds me of that moment. The painting Goldfish<\/em>\u00a0by Henri Matisse depicts a cylindrical fishbowl housing four goldfish at the center of the frame. The fishbowl rests on a round tabletop painted pink. On the table are two potted plants: one on the right side of the fishbowl with bright yellow leaves, and one on the left with dark green leaves and a violet flower. Teal-colored legs support the table. Below it, there appears to be a pool of water with lily pads and pink lotus flowers floating on the surface. To the left of the table, there seems to be a teal chair with squiggly lines for the backrest. Above the fishbowl, a variety of large leaves are visible. At the top left, an assortment of lily pads is set against a pink background. At the top are pink flowers against the background of green spots.<\/p>\n

Matisse\u2019s brushstrokes appear somewhat quick, yet smooth and deliberate. The goldfish is depicted in an intense, bright hue that draws the viewer’s attention. There is a sense of complementary contrast between orange and teal, as well as pink and green. The use of white, gray, and black at the rim of the fishbowl imparts a glassy look. The doubling of the orange blob above the fish creates an illusion of reflective water. The dimension in the art is somewhat flat. The color he uses is vibrant and unnatural, making it likely categorized as Fauvism.<\/p>\n

Fauvism marked the first modern art movement to fully depart from realism, demonstrating that color could be bold, vibrant, and emotionally resonant. Henri Matisse’s works exemplify the essence of Fauvism. Together with Andr\u00e9 Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck, and others, Matisse transformed the Paris art scene with his daring use of color, redefined artistic expression. In his painting Goldfish<\/em>, the patterns of the lily pads set against a pink background draw inspiration from Islamic art, an influence he encountered during his visit to Morocco from 1911 to 1912. The painting shows how Fauvism uses color to express emotions. It demonstrates that even a simple goldfish bowl can be a view into a bright, dreamlike world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Goldfish, Henri Matisse, 1912 By Anonymous I chose Goldfish\u00a0by Henri Matisse because the artwork reminds me of a home far away from home. Back in Antigua, during the rainy season, my parents used to collect baby fish that washed up on the road and placed them in a bowl. We didn\u2019t keep them as pets, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7744,"featured_media":393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"portfolio_post_id":0,"portfolio_citation":"","portfolio_annotation":"","openlab_post_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-26","czr-hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/modern-and-contemporary-art-our-highlights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/modern-and-contemporary-art-our-highlights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/modern-and-contemporary-art-our-highlights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/modern-and-contemporary-art-our-highlights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7744"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/modern-and-contemporary-art-our-highlights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/modern-and-contemporary-art-our-highlights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":575,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/modern-and-contemporary-art-our-highlights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392\/revisions\/575"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/modern-and-contemporary-art-our-highlights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/modern-and-contemporary-art-our-highlights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/modern-and-contemporary-art-our-highlights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/modern-and-contemporary-art-our-highlights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}