Goldfish appear in 9 paintings of Matisse. It is thought that he got inspired by his visit to Morocco where the local population population would day-dream, gazing into goldfish bowls. Roy Lichtenstein made several paintings inspired by Matisse. 

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Henri Matisse 

The POST features a detail of Goldfish and palette painted in the Fall 1914. Matisse had tried to enlist in the army but was considered too old. His friend the artist Charles Camoin was sent to the front and they would exchange letters. In one of his letters, Matisse expresses that he's working hard because he cannot stay idle but that his struggle has nothing to do with what the men fighting are facing. He is frustrated of feeling powerless.

Camoin told him in one of his letters, that he should work to represent their lost generation. The comment of Picasso is based on his quote "Art is not made to decorate rooms. It is an offensive weapon in the defence against the enemy."

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Roy Lichtenstein

The POST is based on an interview of Roy reflecting in Art in America in 1975 in an article about the influence of Matisse. He stated "Everyone is influenced by (Matisse) to a certain extent. It’s an influence that everybody also tries to get rid of. I think the same is true of Picasso (...) Picasso and Matisse (...) define painting in a certain way. And because of that a great effort is made to get away from them. The Abstract Expressionists were trying to get away from them. Actually, I think maybe they got closer, which we all seem to do in trying to get away." 

His friend Ellsworth Kelly said "there is a difference between European colour and American colour. America misunderstood my colour; [they] thought it was out of date, but in fact it was different. It was Matisse, Derain, the Fauves, Mondrian"

Leo Castelli had launched Lichtenstein's career and considered he was one of his discoveries. 

 

Sources:
Eight Interviews/Statements, Art in America 63, 1975

Henri Matisse: Modernist Against the Grain By Catherine Bock-Weiss

Matisse: In Search of True Painting edited by Rebecca A. Rabinow, Dorthe Aagesen

Lichtensteinfoundation.org

Ellsworth Kelly Interview, Apollo Magazine October 2013

Interview of Leo Castelli, 1969-1973 June 8, by Paul Cummings, the Archives of American Art.

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