An exhibition in Paris traces the Matisse revolution in the 1930s

The Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris turns its gaze to the French painter and sculptor Henri Matisse (1869-1954), in a new exhibition which, through the historical French magazine Cahiers d’art, follows the era of change that the artist experienced in the 1930s.

In collaboration with the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Matisse Museum in Nice, Matisse. Cahiers d’art-The change of the 1930s Follow the journey of the brilliant artist during a period of crisis of inspiration when he abstained from painting to travel to Tahiti and the United States.

“He was fascinated by the transparency of the lagoons, the algae, the reflection of the leaves, the vegetation and the Tahitians, present in some of his drawings”, explained the curator of the exhibition, Cecile Debray. The Polynesian island will inspire some of his works from 1935, including the two versions of Window on Tahiti.

As soon as he has finished his travels, he will begin one of his most recognized works, the mural of Dancefor the Barnes Foundation in the United States, a sign of his artistic renewal for which he developed a new working method, fully documented by the Cahiers d’art through the hundreds of drawings he made Matisse before his work, many of them are now on display on this tour.

A “very important” order for a Matisse already 60 years old, says Debraywho, in search of creating something readable but hieratic, begins to play with the “gouache” paper (washed paint) on which he draws the colored shapes of the fresco and with which he establishes his composition.

In addition to this new technique, Matisse began photographing the different stages of his work to show “the youthfulness of his work”, he says Debray. “What could have remained hidden in the workshop was published by Art books. It is believed that this magazine accompanied his intellectual journey and that it almost stimulated the return of Matisse to the avant-garde scene”, testifies the curator.

These two techniques accompanied the pictorial production of the artist in the 1930s, among which Debray highlight box pink nudefrom 1935, who already used his assistant as a model, Lydia Delectorskaya.

Dialogue with Picasso

The exhibition takes advantage of the legend of the rivalry between picasso there Matissepartly promoted by the Cahiers d’art, and compares some of the works of the two avant-garde geniuses.

“We know that Matisse He was a great admirer of the expressive power of the designs of picasso and tried to come close to doing the same in the 1930s. picasso admired the work of the sculptor Matisse and one very often sees in the pages of the Cahiers d’art reproductions of works by Matisse there picasso which are linked”, explains Debray.

The dialogue between the two artists was shown in the French publication, but it existed outside the magazine and both followed a parallel trajectory, believes the curator.

For its part, Matisse The decade will end with works of nudes or figures, in which the presence of the type of Romanian blouse and the bright and colorful interior decorations stand out, an exhibition of paintings that closes the Paris exhibition, open until May 29 2023. Then, the exhibition will travel to Nice, where it will be presented from June 23 to September 24.

Source: EFE

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