- Matisse used pure colors and the white of exposed canvas to create a light-filled atmosphere
- His use of color and pattern is disorientating and unsettling
- Islamic art, African sculpture, and the flatness of Japanese prints
- balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing
- Fauvism
- Used colors to express emotion
- He had an interest in Cubism
- He started to experience with cutouts