If Picasso is the great protean figure in 20th century art,"; says UBC's John O'Brian, author of his 11th book, (University of Chicago), "Matisse would be next in line."; An expert on modern art in the first half of the 20th century, O'Brian examines the marketing of Matisse in North America from 1913, when Matisse was seen as a radical, to the 1950s, when his work was canonized. "Whatever his reputation as an avant-gardist,"; says O'Brian, "the conduct of [Matisse's] life was solidly bourgeois."; Eager to be accepted for financial and social reasons, Matisse said prior to his first North American exhibition, "Oh, do tell the American people that I am a normal man; that I am a devoted husband and father, that I have three fine children, that I go to the theatre."; In fact, Henri Mattise was nearly as profligate as Picasso. 0-226-61626-6

[BCBW WINTER 1999]