In the first few years of the early 20th century, the three artists began to take a new approach to their creations in which color and emotional expression were given priority over literal representation. They created hundreds of riotously colorful and emotionally uninhibited paintings, blasting out a message that the world was a wonderful place. Audiences to the UCCA show can spot this artistic turn of Matisse in Collioure, Sun Street (1905) and Seashore in Collioure (1905), both inspired by the sun-kissed fishing village in the South of France.

When they exhibited their shockingly colorful paintings at the 1905 Salon d’Automne, their psychedelic, expressive offerings, on display in the same room, were met with disparagement from conservative critics. Influential art critic Louise Vauxcelles (1870-1943) called their paintings of “les fauves” (wild beasts), thus providing the name of Fauvism, a new art movement that wielded influence on later modern art movements such as Expressionism and Abstract Expressionism.