3 March-9 June 2013
Matisse: Cutting Into Colour at Musée départemental Matisse
The family of Henri Matisse (1869-1954) donated 443 gouache paper cutouts that Matisse never used in his work to the Matisse Museum in the town of his birth. These cutouts were made between 1943 (when he began Jazz) and 1948 (when he designed the Vence Chapel). The exhibition offers a glimpse at Matisse’s approach developed on the basis of these preparatory cutouts, including maquettes for stained glass windows, ceramics, books, book covers, and fabrics, tracing the artist’s path from his first designs to his major compositions in gouache paper cutouts, such as Vigne (1953), which is conserved at the museum. These cutouts are rare and fragile. To create them, Matisse cut directly into the colour of gouached papers to fashion seaweed, palms, birds, flowers, etc.–many more than he ever used to create the wall panels or book covers designed with this new process. The Matisse family gave the remaining gouache paper cutouts to the Musée Matisse de Nice.
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INFORMATION
Musée départemental Matisse
Palais Fénelon
59360 Le Cateau-Cambrésis
France
33(0)3 59 73 38 06
Hours:
Wednesday-Monday, 10AM-6PM
Image
Maquette du catalogue Henri Matisse, Lithographies rares, exposition à la Galerie Berggruen, Paris, 1954
by Henri Matisse
gouached papers, cut and glued onto paper
1954
© Succession H. Matisse – Photo Philip Bernard