The Snail

Henri Matisse created this The Snail in 1953, near the end of his life. Unable to paint due to illness, he directed assistants to cut shapes from paper he had painted with gouache. The resulting collage spirals outward in blocks of brilliant orange, blue, green, and violet.

Matisse called this technique "painting with scissors." The Snail abstracts the mollusk's spiral shell into pure color relationships. At nearly 3 meters square, it's monumental despite its simple materials. The work influenced generations of abstract painters and demonstrates how limitation can spark innovation. It hangs at Tate Modern.