Ill health paid dividends for Henri Matisse. While recuperating from appendicitis in his early twenties, he first discovered his passion for painting when his mother gave him some paint and paper to occupy him.In his late sixties, it was while being wheelchair bound after battling cancer that he stumbled onto his cut-out method of art making, which allowed him to cut shapes while sitting in bed.These limitations informed his art in a profound way for he was prevented from labouring over details in his paintings and cut-outs. It led him to evolve a distinctive modernist vocabulary."His art demonstrated the audacity of simplicity," observed Françoise Gilot, the artist who accompanied Picasso on visits to French-born Matisse's home.Hence Joburgers will no doubt be queuing up at the Standard Bank Gallery this week to see Rhythm and Meaning , an exhibition that showcases his early Fauvist years and his fixation with the orientalised female nude.MASTER: Matisse in his studio circa 1952But it's a suite of 20 prints of his cut-out works, included in a book dubbed Jazz, that are the main focus.Matisse's African inspiration, which guided him towards reduced forms, might allow his art to enjoy an aesthetic bond with our continent but it makes for uncomfortable socio-political baggage.His ''primitivist" notions depended on pejorative ideas about African expression and society as ideal and naïve. This aspect drew criticism of the gallery's staging of the Picasso exhibition about decade ago. The South African co-curator Federico Freschi has suggested that this feature, however negative, can be used to revisit the criticisms the Picasso exhibition evoked.The organisers - the gallery in partnership with the French Embassy and French Institute of South Africa - urge that instances of cultural appropriation shouldn't prevent us from enjoying Matisse's art.It will be interesting to see whether an acknowledgement of Matisse's appropriation of African forms (made obvious through a collection of African artifacts from the Wits Art Museum) and adherence to primitivist ideology will neutralise criticism.Matisse worked with his flaws, exploited them even, but this is one aspect he might never have anticipated. It's ironic, given Matisse prized lightness and beauty, the decorative. Perhaps all beauty belies darker truths.'Rhythm and Meaning' is on at the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg until September 17..