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Examples of Works Featured on Tour

Two columns of brightly colored rectangles are layered with geometric shapes and organic forms in this abstract, vertical artwork. The rectangles are painted, and the abstract shapes are cut from pieces of painted paper. The left column is stacked top to bottom with rectangles in black, lime green, sage green, sunshine yellow, watermelon pink, and amethyst purple. There is also a pink triangle above the pink rectangle, near the middle of the column. Spanning different sections of the column are a blue spiral and a curling blue line, white petal-like shapes, and purple and blue stylized leaves, perhaps seaweed, and triangles. A narrow black form like the profile of a stylized fish and a curve radiating spikes float in the middle of the column. The rectangles of the right column are silvery gray, goldenrod yellow, bright green, lime green, sunshine yellow, and sapphire blue. The column is layered with two more black spiky shapes, a short vertical royal-blue curving line, and an elongated, white U shape. A long, black S-shape floats over the top four rectangles, and a pumpkin-orange spiral lies on top of a sapphire-blue circle near the yellow rectangle at the bottom. That yellow rectangle has blue rectangle at its center and a darker yellow rectangle to the left. There is a white wavy line up the blue area, a black wavy line to each side in the yellow, and one black heart-shape near the each of the lower corners of the blue field. Higher up, the lime-green rectangle in each column also has a smaller, darker green rectangle painted within. The work is set against a flat, parchment-brown background. The artist wrote the title in black cursive letters across bottom, “les betes de la mer...” and signed and dated the lower right, “H. Matisse 50.”

Henri Matisse, Beasts of the Sea, 1950, gouache on paper, cut and pasted on white paper, mounted on canvas,National Gallery of Art, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1973.18.1

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This free-standing sculpture is made up of a sweeping, backward-facing C shape supporting a series of ten curving, interlocking, thin wires that cascade down and to our left in this photograph, each one ending in a flat, leaf-like paddle on either end. The C-shaped arm forks into three feet, on which the sculpture sits so the other branches float freely. The S-shaped arms are linked by tiny rings at the center of each arm, and they descend in size as they arc down and to our left. Each S-shaped arm has a black, roughly triangular paddle at the top; the third paddle from our right has a hole in it. The paddles at the bottom of each arm are each a different color, with ruby red to our right, then marigold orange, pine green, honey yellow, and the final four to our left are white. The size of the paddles also descend in size from our right to left. The branch connecting the S-shaped branches to the C-shaped base is curvier, and has one black paddle, the largest of all, at the bottom point.

Alexander Calder, Little Spider, c. 1940, painted sheet metal and wire, National Gallery of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls,1996.120.18. Photo © 2000 Estate of Alexander Calder / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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Geometric and wavy shapes in areas of flat color come together as a person holding a small guitar, sitting on a green chair, in this vertical, abstracted painting. Some of the forms are outlined in black. Two dots and a curving line read as a modern smiley face on the person’s head, but a circle to our left and a tall, long oval to our right could be the eyes. The tall oval has short, cilia-like rays at the top and bottom, perhaps eyelashes. Pointed triangles along the bottom of the head area could be a beard or mustache. A shallow, upside-down, black U over the head is filled in with slate blue, and is presumably a hat. Areas on the torso have black grids creating diamond patterns against tomato red or bright yellow. Another area has vertical red and yellow dashes against a black background. Together they read as a diamond-patterned costume. The guitar is held vertically on the lap. It has an oversized neck vertically striped with black and white, an orange body with slivers of white to our left and black to our right. One hand holds the guitar near the tuning pegs and the other, represented with three wavy lines for fingers, touches the strings below. The chair behind the musician is grass green, and has curving sides and scrolling arms. The background behind the chair has vertical petal-pink and ocean-blue rectangles, against a wall that is off white above and rust brown below. The two zones of the wall are separated by a band with a Greek key pattern in charcoal gray and black. The artist signed and dated the top left corner, “Picasso 24.”

Pablo Picasso, Harlequin Musician, 1924, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Given in loving memory of her husband, Taft Schreiber, by Rita Schreiber, 1989.31.2. Photo © 2012 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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Abstract forms in white, outlined with bold black lines, turn, twist, and curve up around a person with cartoon-like features in this free-standing sculptural piece. The shapes create legs and are pierced with holes, like an abstracted coral reef. The forms are bright white with thick black outlines around all the edges and crossing the curves and angled sides of the forms. In this photograph, it is not possible to see if a vaguely H-shaped section to our left is attached to or stands independently from the row behind it. A person with abstracted eyes, nose, and mouth stands in front of the sculpture, to our right. In this photograph, the sculpture stands on a plinth in a room with a wood floor and a white wall behind it.

Jean Dubuffet, Site à l'homme assis, 1969-1984, polyester resin, National Gallery of Art, Gift of Robert M. and Anne T. Bass and Arnold and Mildred Glimcher, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1991.100.1

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