Although particularly intense moments of this relationship have already been studied, it has never been examined in its entirety. In this book, Yve-Alain Bois stages the intertwined evolution of Matisse and Picasso as an ongoing game of chess between two masters.

The book concentrates on this extraordinary artistic partnership as it develops from the early Thirties on, at the time when Picasso rediscovers Matisse's sculpture and Matisse, in part responding to Picasso's challenge, definitively abandons his odalisques of the Nice period. Both artists acquired works by the other and throughout the Thirties each artist attempted to translate the idiom of the other into his own. Although separated during the War, Matisse and Picasso nevertheless resume their barter of paintings and never stop thinking about each other's work.

The post-war period is the most tender in their long friendship. Geographically close at last, they meet often and exhibit together. Picasso's 1946 creations at Antibes have an impact on Matisse while Picasso admires Matisse's spectacular interiors of 1947-48. Even if he is irritated by Matisse's Vence Chapel, Picasso's answer in Vallauris will be a Temple of his own -- that is, a form of homage to his artistic friend and rival. Picasso's best tribute to Matisse, however, will come in the series of paintings he realizes shortly after his death, notably the series of the Women of Algiers and of The Studio of 1955-56.

The book is published in conjuction with an exhibition atthe Kimbell Museum of Art, Fort Worth, Texas.