A wild beast or wild animal; also used as a term for artists of the Fauvism movement who used bold, non-naturalistic colors.
From French fauve meaning 'wild beast,' from Latin ferus. Applied to the early 20th-century art movement by critics who thought the painters' wild use of color made them seem 'savage' or 'bestial.'
When critics called Matisse and his friends 'les Fauves' (the wild beasts), they meant it as an INSULT—but the artists just shrugged and kept using shocking colors anyway, turning the insult into an art movement!
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