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 The show, "Henri Matisse: the Cut-Outs," which runs from Oct.
12 through Feb. 8 at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), includes
100 works from private and public collections, drawings,
textiles and stained glass from the final years of the renowned
artist, who died in 1954 aged 84.
"It is the most extensive exhibition of this period of Matisse's
work ever mounted," said Jodi Hauptman, a curator of the show,
which was organized in collaborations with the Tate Modern in
London.
Matisse was already famous for his vivid paintings when he began
to draw with scissors, cutting colored and painted paper into
various shapes, then mounting and pinning them on paper, canvas
and the walls of his studio.
"He is at the end of his life but he is still inventing
something new," said Hauptman, "and not accepting what he had
always done."
The exhibition follows Matisse as he begins with small works of
dancers twirling and leaping and figures in bright colors, using
paper which was more expedient and less labor intensive than
paint.
It follows with Jazz, a series of works for a project for
publisher Teriade, and continues with larger works such as "The
Thousand and One Nights," which depicts the story of fictional
Queen Scheherazade from the Arabian Nights, and his four "Blue
Nude" studies of the female form.
"He began using paper to kind of form his compositions and at
this point it is helping him do what he needs to do," Hauptman
explained. "After he started working on Jazz he sees that he has
invented this new thing that he calls a cut-out operation."
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When the exhibition was shown in London earlier this year it drew
more than 560,000 people during its nearly five-month run at the
Tate Modern, making it the museum's most popular show ever.
The MOMA show is similar but also includes "The Swimming Pool,"
which fills a room in the exhibit with cut-outs of ultramarine blue
swimmers, divers and sea urchins.
Inspired by a visit to a favorite pool in Cannes, Matisse made the
expansive work pinned on white paper on walls lined with tan canvas
in his dining room in Nice.
It is on view in New York for the first time in two decades and
followed major conservation work, which sparked the exhibit that was
five years in the making.
Other highlights include "The Parakeet and the Mermaid," a massive
cut-out work covering an entire wall with bright blues, greens, reds
and blues; and "Ivy in Flower," a large maquette for a stained glass
window.
"You see the ambition of Matisse, the strength of the artist and the
strength of the work," said Hauptman, adding he had found the art
form to serve his goals.
(Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy and Richard Chang)
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