At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of artists around Henri Matisse and André Derain were carrying out revolutionary colour experiments. The art critic Louis Vauxcelles gave them the name the 'Fauves' in 1905. Translated into English, this means something like 'beasts'. This catalogue presents the expressive painting style & unusual colour combinations used by Matisse, Derain and company in the years 1904 to 1908, situating them in the aesthetic & socio-political debates of that time. The male connotation of the term Fauves already suggests the exclusion of women artists on a conceptual level. The exhibition and catalogue challenge this traditional view and draw attention to female protagonists on the Paris art scene. Richly illustrated and supplemented by new art-historical research contributions, the publication offers an insight into the diversity of the colourful painting by the “beasts".With contributions by Elena Degen, Arthur Fink, Claudine Grammont, Josef Helfenstein, Gabrielle Houbre, Beatrice Joyeux-Prunel, Peter Kropmanns, Maureen Murphy, Pascal Rousseau.