Cut Out
MICHÈLE ROBERTS
(SANDSTONE PRESS, 272 PP, £14.99)
Tablet bookshop price £13.49 • tel 020 7799 4064
In his later years, Henri Matisse cut out colourfully painted papers, and moulded them into exquisite artworks. The 2014 Tate Modern exhibition of his cut-outs included photographs and film footage of the master and his female assistants at work in his bedroom-studio in Hotel Regina, Nice. These photographs clearly inspired Michèle Roberts’ latest novel: an insightful portrait of an ordinary woman who aspires to break down class, religious and gender constraints and become an artist.