The Dance of 1993. But O'Brian's approach to Matisse through sites of reception has produced a slightly more textured view of this troubled commission. Matisse finished his Dance mural in the following year. In this light, Matisse may also have been branding Barnes's ends as propagandistic. His patron's goals could have seemed to Matisse to be as political as either the Rockefellers' or Rivera's, and just as hostile to his belief in the autonomy of art.
Illustrations are well chosen and the color plates are of generally good quality.
Hot pink and yellow dominate the dustjacket, along with well-placed blue to cool the hedonism, sending a mixed message appropriate to the paradoxes in Matisse's reception that O'Brian has synthesized so ably.