classic view of the Matisse/Picasso rivalry is that these two artists were the equivalent of the odd couple of TV fame (Milroy). A staff writer for New York Newsday, Ariella Budick, describes the typical opinion of these men as "a pair of complementary opposites." Textbooks tend to bolster this point-of-view. Modern Art (Hunter and Jacobus) places its discussion of Matisse in a chapter entitled "Expressionism in France" and puts Picasso in the chapter "The Cubist Revolution." Moreover, neither of these chapters makes any substantive mention of the other artist - which further supports the opinion that their approaches to art are fundamentally different. The same holds true of the Artist in Profile series of books put out by Heinemann Library. Matisse is categorized as a Post-Impressionist (Bolton, 34) while Picasso is segregated into the Cubist school of art (Wallis, 48).

The current exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art challenges...
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