- Title: USA-ART EXHIBITION/MATISSE MOMA hails Henri Matisse with 'Cut-Outs' exhibition
- Date: 16th October 2014
- Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (OCTOBER 16, 2014) (REUTERS) EXHIBIT SIGN READING "HENRI MATISSE THE CUT-OUTS" WIDE OF EXHIBIT CLOSE UP OF "AMPHITRITE" PAN DOWN OF COLLECTION (SOUNDBITE) (English) JODI HAUPTMAN, MUSEUM OF MODERN ART SENIOR CURATOR, DEPARTMENT OF DRAWINGS AND PRINTS, SAYING: "He talked about the distinction between drawing and color and for him he saw those as two irreconcilable things. We might think of them as very similar, but for him they were very different and he was a master at both of them, at line, what we sometimes refer to as the arabesque line, which is this kind of wavy line, and you see that in his drawings, this beautiful fluidity. In color, he was really the master of color. He himself described as work as construction by means of color and that was one of his great achievements and his great contributions to the 20th century, so he saw those two things as separate and he always struggled to bring them together. With the cut-outs, he was able to do that because if you think about a painted piece of paper and cutting with scissors into it, you're actually making a line in color and Matisse described that as cutting directly into color, and so for him, it was this amazing way of bringing something together that he had always thought had to remain separate, so it really solved a problem that he had long faced." "TWO DANCERS (DEUX DANSEURS)" VARIOUS OF PINS IN CUT-OUTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) JODI HAUPTMAN, MUSEUM OF MODERN ART SENIOR CURATOR, DEPARTMENT OF DRAWINGS AND PRINTS, SAYING: "When he made those, he was using pins to fasten the works, to fasten the cut forms onto a board, and then ultimately onto the walls of his own studio and he became very interested in the materiality of that paper, the kind of pliability and flexibility, the way it curled off the wall or if you walked by it, it might have even moved, fluttered with the breeze." VIDEO OF MATISSE WIDE OF EXHIBIT WIDE OF "PALE BLUE WINDOW (VITRAIL BLEU PALE)" AND "THE TREE OF LIFE (L'ARBRE DE VIE)" CLOSE UP OF STAINED GLASS WINDOW OF "THE TREE OF LIFE (L'ARBRE DE VIE)" WIDE OF "CHRISTMAS EVE (NUIT DE NOEL)" PAN UP OF STAINED GLASS OF "CHRISTMAS EVE (NUIT DE NOEL)" WIDE OF "CELESTIAL JERUSALEM (JERUSALEM CELESTE)" VARIOUS OF "BLUE NUDE" COLLECTION WIDE OF "WOMEN AND MONKEYS (FEMMES ET SINGES)" VARIOUS OF "THE SWIMMING POOL (LA PISCINE)" VARIOUS OF "THE PARAKEET AND THE MERMAID (LA PERRUCHE ET LA SIRENE)" WIDE OF "THE SHEAF (LA GERBE)" "LARGE DECORATION WITH MASKS (GRANDE DÉCORATION AUX MASQUES)" VARIOUS OF "IVY IN FLOWER (LIERRE EN FLEUR)" EXTERIOR OF MUSEUM OF MODERN ART
- Embargoed: 31st October 2014 12:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA2JWCO7INUA2CZQYR853FV6LJO
- Story Text: Blue figures swim around walls and flowers sprout on a huge canvas in an exhibition of the cut-out works of French artist Henri Matisse.
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.
"He talked about the distinction between drawing and color and for him he saw those as two irreconcilable things," said Jodi Hauptman, a senior curator of the show, which was organized in collaborations with the Tate Modern in London.
"With the cut-outs, he was able to do that because if you think about a painted piece of paper and cutting with scissors into it, you're actually making a line in color and Matisse described that as cutting directly into color, and so for him, it was this amazing way of bringing something together that he had always thought had to remain separate."
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.
"When he made those, he was using pins to fasten the works, to fasten the cut forms onto a board, and then ultimately onto the walls of his own studio and he became very interested in the materiality of that paper, the kind of pliability and flexibility, the way it curled off the wall or if you walked by it, it might have even moved, fluttered with the breeze," said Hauptman.
The exhibition includes 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.
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.
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