Murray’s Reviews > In Montmartre: Picasso, Matisse and the Birth of Modernist Art > Status Update
Murray
is 5% done
I waited for this in the mail which is a vibe you cannot get from an ebook 🙌🏼
🔆(ebooks have different vibes)
Fun to find a book in an envelope at the door🚪📖 💕 ahhh the scent ! and the rich touch on the fingertips of paper 📄
— Apr 27, 2026 11:14AM
🔆(ebooks have different vibes)
Fun to find a book in an envelope at the door🚪📖 💕 ahhh the scent ! and the rich touch on the fingertips of paper 📄
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Murray’s Previous Updates
Murray
is on page 241 of 384
His plates showed models in motion - leaning over, turning aside, conversing - against stylishly minimalist backgrounds. This was a new vision of women, quite different from the ramrod-straight models posed in ornate settings cluttered with plants, screens and art nouveau furniture which had characterized the fashion plates of earlier years.
Modernist art was not just about paintings 🖼️
— May 04, 2026 10:46PM
Modernist art was not just about paintings 🖼️
Murray
is on page 125 of 384
Matisse and Picasso had their lean years. Not selling. Few shows. But they kept going.
Matisse’s art went from shades of gray to thousands of minute points of paint working together to create an image to - after a long hot summer at a fishing village by the sea - huge swaths of color that made his pictures explode.
Picasso went from his grim Blue Period to the warmth and humanity of art the color of roses.
— May 02, 2026 09:15PM
Matisse’s art went from shades of gray to thousands of minute points of paint working together to create an image to - after a long hot summer at a fishing village by the sea - huge swaths of color that made his pictures explode.
Picasso went from his grim Blue Period to the warmth and humanity of art the color of roses.
Murray
is on page 103 of 384
I’m unable to put this book down. It reads like a novel. Romance, tragedy, heroism. These women and men are determined to be artists even if the sales and money are not there (think Van Gogh). Picasso is in his Blue Period (painting what the public saw as depressing works though I love The Old Guitarist) followed by his upbeat Rose Period (la grâce des femmes). Neither him nor Matisse can get shows or sell art.
— May 01, 2026 09:33PM
Murray
is on page 75 of 384
Fascinating. I love reading about the lives of artists - whether they be musicians, painters, writers, dancers, theatrical 🎭 so long as the focus is on their art and the significant relationships in their lives (not gossipy). This book is alive with paint and and exploring new ways to create and bring the mundane (as some see it) to color and to life.
— May 01, 2026 09:56AM
Murray
is on page 50 of 384
For Vlaminck, subjective expression was not so much an aesthetic as a personal compulsion, a private quest driven by a tremendous urge to re-create a new world seen through my own eyes, a world which was entirely pure. ‘I was poor, but I knew that life was something pure, and I realized that all I wanted to do was to find some new and profound way of identifying myself with the soil.'
🖼️ 🎨
— Apr 29, 2026 09:47AM
🖼️ 🎨
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Pia G.
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Apr 27, 2026 01:13PM
Ah, that excited waiting! The texture of paper on the fingertips really is something special, sometimes just slowly turning the pages is enough. Soon the scent of paper will mingle with Matisse’s colors and I’m sure it will awaken beautiful images in your mind. Enjoy it, Murray!
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Pia! Teşekkürler! It will be followed by a bio on Matisse and another on Picasso. Simultaneously I continue with my novels. Such deep draughts of literary cognac are exhilarating for my soul. I have been dying and now I can resurrect ☀️☀️
Rica ederim Murray! 😊I love Matisse very much; his colors always remind me of sunlight, a pure sense of freedom (just like Van Gogh). I’m sure reading about his life will be a beautiful journey.💛🌅
If you ever saw a Dr Who episode where they bring Van Gogh into the future to see a large display of his art at a beautiful museum .. to see his visions embraced and honored and indeed loved .. to see him bewildered and stunned by emotion .. what some artists experience but others never see .. yet to understand they still give us the fruits of their struggle and angst and joy .. and still give us that color and light and freedom you speak of regardless ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ 🎨 …. that …. that is what redeems worlds …. that is what I believe.
Murray, you captured beautifully how an artist’s pain and ecstasy can somehow turn into a source of consolation for others. I truly believe, as you do, that this light is what redeems the world. Perhaps this is what true immortality really means! 🌈✨️
It is indeed a better immortality.
The episode is on YouTube btw. I believe you’d enjoy it 5-10 minutes. Dr Who and the Van Gogh Museum
Murray, I watched the episode you suggested and it moved me deeply. Seeing Van Gogh stand before the future that would finally understand him felt almost sacred. It reminded me of a line by the Turkish poet Nazım Hikmet: 'The most beautiful sea is the one we have not yet sailed'. Perhaps the same is true for art, the most beautiful recognition sometimes belongs to a future the artist will never see. Yet the light they leave behind still reaches us. Thank you for sharing this moment with me! 🌻
I just saw this now Pia as GR no longer sends out notifications. My pleasure and I’m so glad the episode moved you too. And that’s a beautiful word from the Turkish poet 🌊 ⛵️
So true, Murray, the expectation and the patience to wait for something valuable 😊📚