Matisse
Henry Matisse illustrates five women dancing around in a circular pattern in his painting Dance. The nude, fair-skinned women all have slender bodies with black hair pulled back on their shoulders. They look very carefree and alive dancing around with joined hands. The tallest woman looks as if she is the leader because she is not holding hands with the woman on her right. Matisse may have done this to show where the circle begins. This painting is very simple and consists of very few colors. The two loudest colors are green, being the grass that the women dance on, and blue, that is the sky in the backgroun
Also, according to Safir, the green mound of which the ladies are dancing on is grass. " This suggests that if their worshipping circle is broken, a certain evil will rise up in the space. She describes the happy, carefree women as being "joyful sisters" because they look alike. In contrast, I think that they are very serious and ritualistic in their dancing. In the poem, Safir implies that the women are dancing around full of glee. Focusing on the breaking of the circle, the speaker says the tallest woman is pulling the circle. Natalalie Safir's poem about Matisses's painting is very well written and describes the painting in great detail and life. I think that my response is very different than that of the poem's speaker. The speaker assumes that if the girl does not grab on the circle will be broken and a black sun will swirl from that space. The last stanza says that if the circle is broken a "black sun swirls from that space. They look very determined to keep the circle together so that evil cannot get in. Also, it looked to me like the women were dancing on top of the world, thus implying that they were celebrating dominance of the earth. She also notes, in the last stanza, that the girl being pulled at the end of the circle is frightened because she may lose her grip. Safir and I have different views of the painting, but I can fully understand how different people can reach such vastly diverse conclusions.
Common topics in this essay:
Natalalie Safir's,
Henry Matisse,
women dancing,
circle broken,
broken black sun,
circle broken black,
broken black,
black sun,
tallest woman,
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Acceptance Essays
