Art is divine

The Soul in colors

by Micha Christos

MUSEE DE L'ORANGERIE

Paris

From March 1 to May 29, 2023

Matisse

Cahiers d’art

The Turn of the 1930s

Henri Matisse (1869–1954) Resting dancer 1940

Oil on canvas, 81,3 × 64,8 cm Toledo Museum of Art

Henri Matisse (1869–1954) Nymph in the forest (Greenery), 1935-1942/1943

Oil on canvas 245,5 × 195,5 cm Paris, musée d’Orsay, en dépôt au musée Matisse de Nice, 1978 © Succession H. Matisse Photo Musée Matisse, Nice / François Fernandez

The Matisse exhibition "Cahiers d'art - The turning point of the 1930s" looks back on this decisive decade in that it will determine the years that will follow. In 1930, Matisse left France for a trip to Tahiti.

He voluntarily marks a break in his creation to engage in an artistic turn and reinvent himself.

The review “Cahiers d’art” by Christian Zervos reactivates the Matisse-Picasso duo as the voice of international modernism.

This exhibition is dedicated solely to this period and is carried by three institutions in three emblematic places of this moment in his work, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris, dedicated to the Paul Guillaume collection, one of the Matisse dealers whose collection of works by the latter shown in the early 1930s contributes to the renewed interest in Matisse's radical pre-war period, and finally the Matisse Museum in Nice, a place of life and creation, source of inspiration since 1917.

Henri Matisse (1869–1954) large lying nude (Pink nude), 1935 Oil on canvas, 66,4 × 93,3 cm

Baltimore Museum of Art © Succession H. Matisse Photo Baltimore Museum of Art / Mitro Hood

The course of the exhibition in Paris articulates the work of Matisse during the decade around a few major themes according to a chronological thread and echoing the issues of the magazine after a prologue around the end of the 1920s. Matisse thus goes through years of doubt between 1927 and 1930 before leaving for Tahiti and the United States. There he collects exotic and ethnographic objects for the decor of "La Danse" on the theme of the love struggle with Lydia Delectorskaia, his assistant and model.

The exhibition arrives at Matisse's method with meticulously elaborate paintings such as his "Large Reclining Nude" or the "Lady in Blue". Finally, his fourth theme deals with the revival of his painting in his large and bright workshops in Nice, which gave rise to an abundant pictorial production of green plants with a profusion of ornamental motifs and Romanian blouses.

Henri Matisse (1869–1954) Odalisque in the anemones yellow Persian dress,

end of January 1937 oil on canvas 55,2 × 46 cm

Philadelphia Museum of Art © Succession H. Matisse Photo Philadelphia Museum of Art

Henri Matisse (1869–1954) Odalisque in gray breeches, 1926-1927

oil on canvas, 54 × 65 cm Paris, musée de l’Orangerie

Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973) Illustrations for Ovid's Metamorphoses,

Fight for Andromeda between Perseus and Phineus

1930 32.3 × 25 cm Prints, proofs, etchings on copper

Photo RMN-Grand Palais (Musée National Picasso-Paris) / Thierry Le Mage

This exhibition allows you to admire exceptional works that are rarely shown in France. The paintings rub shoulders with objects from the Matisse collection, archives, photographic states and also issues of “Cahiers d’art”.

A wonderful opportunity to discover the creative evolution of a great master at the heart of his art, from line to color to paint his soul.

Henri Matisse (1869–1954) Inverted Nude and Foliage,

February 1936 Charcoal and stump on Arches watermarked laid paper, 32,9 × 50,2 cm