PHILADELPHIA - A fundamental decade in Henri Matisse's artistic career goes on show for the first time in a museum.
It is about the 1930s and 'Matisse in the 1930s', at the Philadelphia Museum of Art from October 19 to January 29, 2023, focuses precisely on a missing piece in the exhibitions on the French painter, engraver, illustrator and sculptor ( 1869-1954).
The exhibition stems from the collaboration and collections of three museums, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris and Musée Matisse in Nice.
Over one hundred works are exhibited, ranging from paintings to sculptures, drawings, prints, books.
'Matisse in the 1930s' was curated by Matthew Affron, Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Cécile Debray, president of the Musée National Picasso-Paris and Claudine Grammont, director of the Musée Matisse Nice.
"This decade of transformation in Matisse's career - explained to ANSA Matthew Affron, who curated the exhibition 'Impressionism and Avant-garde' in Milan in 2018 - has never been treated in an independent exhibition. In this case, a rare exhibition is offered. opportunity to immerse yourself in a process by which Matisse generated a new creative approach and a new perspective in the latter part of his career ".
Affron also pointed out that the art on display in Philadelphia begins in the 1920s and ends approximately in 1942.
"It is a fundamental period - he continues - because the artist found a more abstract and more dynamic way of painting. He also focuses above all on drawing as it is considered the means to show his creative process.
He wants to show his audience everything .
the effort behind the birth of a work of art. He seems to be more interested in the path rather than the finished work ".
The exhibition is divided into five thematic sections and organized in chronological order as well as a prologue and an epilogue.
The 1930s are also the time when Matisse traveled to the United States and visited the Barnes Foundation at its original location in Merion, on the outskirts of Philadelphia.
Here he was commissioned to do a three-part mural, 'The Dance', which is still on the walls of the Barnes Foundation today.
As Cécile Debray further explained, 'The dance' also marks the artist's return to a modernist style as well as the exit from a period in which his creativity had suffered a setback.
(HANDLE).