Home/Symbols/Oversized plumed hatOversized plumed hat SymbolismPublic display and fashion turned into ‘armor’; a performative persona that dominates identity.Common ThemesMimesis vs. abstraction (truth vs. artifice)Medium reflexivity (art about art)Originality, authorship, and appropriationGender & sexualityFashion & adornmentClass & inequalityArtworks Featuring This SymbolWoman with a HatHenri Matisse (1905)In Woman with a Hat, Henri Matisse turns portraiture into a laboratory for <strong>pure color</strong> and <strong>modern identity</strong>. Jagged greens and violets carve the face; the hat detonates into a crown of brushstrokes; a fan slices the torso into bright planes. The result declares Fauvism’s credo: <strong>feeling over description</strong> <sup>[1]</sup><sup>[2]</sup>.
