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Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954). The Parakeet and the Mermaid. 1952. Gouache on paper, cut and pasted, and charcoal on white paper. 11’ 11/16” x 25’ 2 9/16″ (337 x 768.5 cm). Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. Acquired with the assistance of the Vereeniging Rembrandt and the Prince Bernhard Cultuurfonds © 2014 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
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HENRI MATISSE: THE CUT-OUTS
12/10/2014-8/2/2015
The Joan and Preston Robert Tisch Exhibition Gallery, sixth floor
In the late 1940s, Henri Matisse turned increasingly to cut paper as his primary medium and scissors as his chief implement, introducing a radically new operation that came to be called a cut-out. Matisse would cut painted sheets into forms of varying shapes and sizes—from the vegetal to the abstract—which he then arranged into lively compositions, striking for their play with color and contrast, their exploitation of decorative strategies, and their economy of means. Initially, these compositions were of modest size but, over time, their scale grew along with Matisse’s ambitions for them, expanding into mural or room-size works. A brilliant final chapter in Matisse’s long career, the cut-outs reflect both a renewed commitment to form and color and an inventiveness directed to the status of the work of art, whether as a unique object, environment, ornament, or a hybrid of all of these.
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Posted 16 November 2014
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Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs is a groundbreaking reassessment of this important body of work. The most extensive presentation of the cut-outs ever mounted, the exhibition includes approximately 100 cut-outs—borrowed from public and private collections around the globe—along with a selection of related drawings, illustrated books, stained glass, and textiles. The last time New York audiences were treated to an in-depth look at the cut-outs was in 1961.
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Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954). Pale Blue Window (Vitrail bleu pâle), November 1948–January 1949. Second maquette for the apse window for the Chapel of the Rosary, Vence. Two-part panel: gouache on paper, cut and pasted, on kraft paper, mounted on canvas. 200 ¾ x 99 3/8” (509.8 x 252.3 cm). Musée national d’art moderne/Centre de création industrielle, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. Gift of Mme Jean Matisse and Gérard Matisse, 1982. © 2014 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
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This exhibition was sparked by an initiative to conserve The Museum of Modern Art’s monumental cut-out The Swimming Pool (1952), a favorite of visitors since its acquisition by MoMA in 1975. The Swimming Pool is the only cut-out composed for a specific room—the artist’s dining room in his apartment in Nice, France. The goals of the multiyear conservation effort have been to bring this magical environment back to its original color balance, height, and spatial configuration. Newly conserved, The Swimming Pool—off view at MoMA for more than 20 years—returns to MoMA’s galleries as a centerpiece of the exhibition.
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With research on two fronts—conservation and curatorial—this exhibition offers a reconsideration of the cut-outs by exploring a host of technical and conceptual issues: the artist’s methods and materials and the role and function of the works in his practice; their environmental aspects; their sculptural and temporal presence as their painted surfaces exhibited texture and materiality, curled off the walls, and shifted in position over time; and their double lives, first as contingent and mutable in the studio and, ultimately, as permanent, a transformation accomplished via mounting and framing. The exhibition also mines the tensions that lurk in all the cut-outs, between finish and process, fine art and decoration, drawing and color.
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Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954). Nuit de Noël. 1952. Maquette for stained-glass window. Gouache on paper, cut and pasted, mounted on board. 10’7″ x 53 1/2″ (322.8 x 135.9 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Time Inc. © 2014 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
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Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954). The Snail (L’Escargot), 1953. Gouache on paper, cut and pasted, on paper, mounted on canvas. 112 ¾ x 113” (286.4 x 287 cm). Tate. Purchased with assistance from the Friends of the Tate Gallery, 1962. © 2014 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
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The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, a children’s book, and education programs.
Henri Matisse: The Cutouts is organized by The Museum of Modern Art in collaboration with Tate Modern, London.
Organized at MoMA by Karl Buchberg, Senior Conservator, and Jodi Hauptman, Senior Curator, with Samantha Friedman, Assistant Curator, Department of Drawings and Prints.
Bank of America is the Global Sponsor of Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs.
Major support for the MoMA presentation is provided by The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, and Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis.
Additional funding is provided by Dian Woodner, The Junior Associates of The Museum of Modern Art, and the MoMA Annual Exhibition Fund.
Park Hyatt New York is the hotel sponsor of Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs.
Media sponsorship is provided by theguardian.com.
This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
USA
NEW YORK
The Museum of Modern Art
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?New York, NY 10019-5497?
+1 (212) 708-9400
http://www.moma.org
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