Matisse: Radical Invention at Art Institute of Chicago

Preview by Joyce  Owens

The Institute’s top-notch staff joins with New York’s Museum of Modern Art to gather about 120 images, including monumental and small paintings, portrait sculptures, tiny monotypes, etchings, intimate drawings in ink and graphite, some on scraps of paper that Matisse (1869-1954) possibly never expected to be featured in a major show, are right here! The time period, 1913-1917, coincides with war in Europe, so one has to consider the history of the world and how it plays in the art Matisse produced in Paris after a trip to Morocco and before going to Nice. The two museums were engaged in scientific research on Matisse’s works notably Bathers by a River and his Back bas-reliefs, gaining additional knowledge about his practice.

I enjoyed the access to the work, allowing close study of the displays. Possibly because many are under glass, there are fewer barrier ropes and tapings than usual. To appreciate Matisse’s processes, we can see objects which appear like ghosts and shadows, after being mostly erased. I was able to stand close to the work and see the moments where he was changing his mind. He gave us the gift of his reworking, and things that were perhaps mistakes at first, ultimately became lyrical and lovely permanent passages in his work. The museum provides an electronic presentation about Matisse’s radical innovations during this period.

Let me go back to some of the important details and credits. The museum’s director, James Cuno, invited the media to a press luncheon to launch the show. In the galleries we intermingled with museum members, possibly because the media has shrunk so much that we would neither fill the place, nor interfere much with the paying guests.

Cuno introduced the curators Stephanie D’Allessandro (Art Institute) and John Elderfield (MoMA), and lenders and funders to the exhibition explaining how a painting already in the Art Institute collection inspired the show. Cuno introduced other significant contributors to the show, even the legal staff! This endeavor must have been tricky in more ways the one. Cuno remarked, “things were ferociously acquired through an intense process”. The fight was well worth its results! If you like art, this exhibition may push you into the love art column as you bathe in the color palette of the master artist and then witness his decision to remove color, neutralizing canvasses with grays, nodding to the contemporary art thing, Cubism. Inspired by Paul Cezanne, who by the way, is represented in this major endeavor, Matisse painted Cezanne’s work.

You will also notice the facile line of Matisse’s graphite drawings, remnants of pencil in his painting and use of sgrafitto in his large paintings. The monotypes are made by scratching delicate lines on a prepared plate, then printing on paper. Not an “accurate” drawer, the series of nude drawings in the show demonstrate that a confident line can take an artist a long way.

Exhibition Dates: March 20 – Jun 20, 2010