Even in the most synthesised of Matisse's paintings there is the prescence of a black line - in fact it can be siad to serve as a gauge of that synthesis. Notice it as delineation and the picture is the lesser for it. Notice it as a force, a colour which orchestrates areas and is integral to the pictoriality. I find it difficualt to use the word 'shape' when discussing Matisse's paintings. Picasso painted shapes, Matisse - areas. For me a shape has connotations of a three-dimensional form on a flat surface. I know that is exactly what Matisse traded in but somehow his forms when fully synthesised, not mimetic I should add morph into areas as they have been fully integrated (not subsumed) into his pictorial space - they in fact create that space. Move away from a Matisse painting and the painting never loses any presence. In fact what happens is each area serves as an incident in a continous 'membrane' , one which is neither overwrought or weighty, rather light, airy yet always solid. the kind of space we occupy in dreams, fluid and certain at the same time. If you could step into a Matisse painting nothing would bruise you, yet you would always feel the gravity of the situation and never lose your orientation('I never drew a crazy curve" as he said). The same cannot be said for a journey into a Picasso painting. I would fear for my bones in a Picasso.