Matisse in the 1930s
In late November, I visited two of my closest friends in Philadelphia as I always do in this time period. There, I had a second opportunity this year to see Henri Matisse's exhibition after Matisse: The Red Studio exhibition at MoMA museum on Friday night which used to be my favorite time to visit this museum when I used to live in Philadelphia.
I was happy to be able to see two well curated exhibitions of the same artist this year as I have been thinking about what the life of an artist means to art works that have remained after the artist's life.
Normally I can be very indecisive about things that are outside my art making, but this time I am happy that I insisted on visiting this show even though it shortens my precious time with my beloved friends in my two days stay in Philadelphia.
This exhibition was a whole different show from the exhibition at MoMa. It focused on his commission at The Barnes Foundation when he actually visited Pennsylvania to create the mural, but this exhibition included more varied work than what I expected.
I appreciated that he as a creator documented his process of making intending later to show it to his audience what it takes to create one work of his. It is like today's Instagram in the 1930s he did, in a way.
These are photo archives of artworks and wall texts from the exhibition. It is intended to be my personal record, but as always please feel free to take a look if you missed the exhibition.
---Below is texts from the official website of Philadelphia Museum of Art---
Through January 29, 2023
By 1930, Henri Matisse had achieved significant international renown, yet he found himself in a deep creative slump. The turning point came in the fall of that year with a commission to decorate the main gallery of the Barnes Foundation, then located in a suburb of Philadelphia. The resulting monumental mural, The Dance (1930–33), turned Matisse’s artistic practice around.
Matisse in the 1930s explores changes in the artist’s work across multiple formats, including easel and decorative painting, sculpture, printmaking, drawing, and the illustrated book. The exhibition also addresses the methods of working that renewed Matisse’s style, as well as his modern renderings of mythological themes from antiquity, his depictions of female models in the studio, and his partnership with his studio manager and model, Lydia Delectorskaya. -Philadelphia Museum of Art
Comments
Post a Comment