Icarus, from Jazz

Yellow stars are scattered across a deep blue night sky.
Through it, a black silhouette of a figure drifts downward with arms outstretched.

The title is "Icarus," included in the art book "Jazz."
With its vivid colors and rhythmic composition, it is often assumed to have been created playfully while listening to cheerful music.
Others see it as a cautionary tale of human folly, drawing on the Greek myth of Icarus, who challenged the gods and plummeted to his death.

Yet in truth, what this artwork embodies is neither carefree gaiety nor the terror of death.

In 1943, as the flames of World War II intensified across France,
Henri Matisse sought refuge from the threat of air raids at the villa "Le Rêve" in Vence, southern France.
Tense days were filled with nighttime blackouts and wailing air-raid sirens.
For a time, the villa's basement was even requisitioned as a canteen for German soldiers.

Moreover, Matisse's own physical condition had reached its breaking point.
He suffered severe aftereffects from major surgery in 1941.
He could no longer stand for extended periods or paint in oils at an easel.
Plagued by insomnia, bound in an iron corset around his abdomen, he spent his days confined to a wheelchair or bed.

Tragedy also struck his family.
His estranged wife and children had thrown themselves into the French Resistance.
In 1944, his daughter Marguerite was arrested by the Gestapo.
She endured brutal torture before being put on a train bound for a concentration camp.

In the depths of despair and fear,
amidst the darkness, Matisse embarked on a new form of expression.
He used scissors to cut directly into paper colored with gouache by his assistants.
This marked the birth of his cut-outs—"cutting directly into color."
It was the only art left to him, an endeavor he could pursue entirely within the reach of his wheelchair.