The Matisse Museum offers a new exhibition for fall 2020 that will evoke the artist’s legacy in the second half of the 20th century, specifically the abstract interpretation of his work.
The famous critic Clement Greenberg noted in 1973 that American abstraction owed a large part of its uniqueness to the influence of Henri Matisse. Initiated by Abstract Expressionism, followed by the second generation of Post-Painterly Abstraction, this American reception acquired from Matisse a renewed conception of pictorial space that asserts itself as a pure, boundless continuum: an escape from the frame. Matisse’s brushstroke, his way of applying color with a keen sense of surface and awareness of its breathing, was another essential contribution. It is through the lens of this initial American interpretation that Matisse’s art could later inspire French artists of the 1960s generation.
Following the major exhibition Matisse Métamorphoses, dedicated to his sculptural work during the spring and summer of 2020, and the extraordinary encounter with cinema revealed by Cinématisse in 2019, the Matisse Museum continues with “The Walls Recede,” a program focused on revealing Matisse in a new light.
The title of this new journey, “The Walls Recede,” is inspired by a quote from the artist to his son-in-law, art critic Georges Duthuit, regarding Fauvism. It aptly conveys one of the main contributions of Matisse’s art to future generations. American and European artists will be presented in dialogue with the museum’s collection: Jean Arp, Joseph Albers, Morris Louis, Jules Olitski, Ellsworth Kelly, Shirley Jaffe, Kenneth Noland, Al Held, Frank Stella, Richard Serra, Aurélie Nemours, Simon Hantaï, Raymond Hains, Jacques Villeglé, Claude Viallat, Daniel Buren, Pierre Buraglio, Bernar Venet, Louis Cane, Jean-Pierre Pincemin, Noël Dolla, Jean-Charles Blais…
Imagined during the lockdown period, based on a proposal by Claudine Grammont, director of the Matisse Museum, this exceptional exhibition was made possible thanks to the generosity of the MAMAC, the Foundation Marguerite and Aimé Maeght, the Venet Foundation, the Espace de l’Art Concret, the gallery Ceysson & Bénétière, and the gallery Catherine Issert Saint-Paul-de-Vence, with the help of the artists themselves. A beautiful example of cultural solidarity!
