Dear AP Art History scholars:
Look what's coming to NYC! Definitely make time to see this fantastic
show sometime between now and February
Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs
October 12, 2014–February 8, 2015
The Joan and Preston Robert Tisch Exhibition Gallery, sixth floor
Timed tickets are required for Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs.Get yours today.
In the late 1940s, Henri Matisse turned almost exclusively to cut paper as his primary medium, and scissors as his chief implement, introducing a radically new operation that came to be called a cut-out. Matisse would cut painted sheets into forms of varying shapes and sizes—from the vegetal to the abstract—which he then arranged into lively compositions, striking for their play with color and contrast, their exploitation of decorative strategies, and their economy of means. Initially, these compositions were of modest size but, over time, their scale grew along with Matisse’s ambitions for them, expanding into mural or room-size works. A brilliant final chapter in Matisse’s long career, the cut-outs reflect both a renewed commitment to form and color and an inventiveness directed to the status of the work of art, whether as a unique object, environment, ornament, or a hybrid of all of these.
Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs is a groundbreaking reassessment of this important body of work. The largest and most extensive presentation of the cut-outs ever mounted, the exhibition includes approximately 100 cut-outs—borrowed from public and private collections around the globe—along with a selection of related drawings, prints, illustrated books, stained glass, and textiles. The last time New York audiences were treated to an in-depth look at the cut-outs was in 1961.
This exhibition was sparked by an initiative to conserve The Museum of Modern Art’s monumental cut-out The Swimming Pool(1952), a favorite of visitors since its acquisition by MoMA in 1975.The Swimming Pool is the only cut-out composed for a specific room—the artist’s dining room in his apartment in Nice, France. The goals of the multiyear conservation effort have been to bring this magical environment back to its original color balance, height, and spatial configuration. Newly conserved, The Swimming Pool—off view for more than 20 years—returns to MoMA’s galleries as a centerpiece of the exhibition.
With research on two fronts—conservation and curatorial—this exhibition offers a reconsideration of the cut-outs by exploring a host of technical and conceptual issues: the artist’s methods and materials and the role and function of the works in his practice; their environmental aspects; their sculptural and temporal presence as their painted surfaces exhibited texture and materiality, curled off the walls, and shifted in position over time; and their double lives, first as contingent and mutable in the studio and, ultimately, as permanent, a transformation accomplished via mounting and framing. The exhibition also mines the tensions that lurk in all the cut-outs, between finish and process, fine art and decoration, drawing and color.
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue and a children’s book.
Timed tickets are required for Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs. Tickets are available through Showclix.com.
During Uniqlo Free Friday Nights timed tickets are required for entry to Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs. Timed tickets will be distributed on location on a first-come, first-served basis. Advance tickets will not be available during Uniqlo Free Friday Nights.
MoMA Members and their accompanied guests can enter the exhibition anytime by showing a valid membership card or guest ticket. No timed tickets are required. MoMA Members also receive exclusive Member Previews for all major exhibitions before those exhibitions open to the public. Join MoMA today.
Henri Matisse (French, 1869–1954). Memory of Oceania. Nice-Cimiez, Hôtel Régina, summer 1952–early 1953. Gouache on paper, cut and pasted, and charcoal on paper mounted on canvas, 9′ 4″ x 9′ 4 7/8″ (284.4 x 286.4 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Mrs. Simon Guggenheim Fund. © 2014 Succession H. Matisse, Paris/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Related Publications
MoMA Studio: Beyond the Cut-Out
Organized in conjunction with the exhibition,MoMA Studio: Beyond the Cut-Out is a creative and social space that takes the cut-out as a starting point from which to consider Matisse’s lasting influence on contemporary art. Through a variety of artist-led workshops, art-making projects, and participatory experiences, visitors of all ages have the opportunity to explore how this innovative technique emerges across different mediums and relates to themes including the boundary between abstraction and figuration, the decorative, and the evolving nature of an artwork. The space has been conceived in collaboration with artists Carlos Amorales, Arturo Herrera, Elaine Reichek, and others.
Related Classes
Classes, artist-led immersions, and experiences can help you develop new perspectives and become a part of a community of learners unlike any other.
Matisse’s Cut-Outs, Part I: From the Studio to the Environment
11:00 a.m.–12:50 p.m., 10/07, 10/14, 10/21, 10/28
11:00 a.m.–12:50 p.m., 10/07, 10/14, 10/21, 10/28
Matisse’s Cut-Outs, Part II: Collage and Process
11:00 a.m.–12:50 p.m., 11/04, 11/11, 11/18, 12/02 (No Class 11/25)
11:00 a.m.–12:50 p.m., 11/04, 11/11, 11/18, 12/02 (No Class 11/25)
Henri Matisse: The Fertile Environment of the Artist’s Studio
8:00–9:50 p.m., 09/30, 10/07, 10/14, 10/28 (No Class 10/21)
8:00–9:50 p.m., 09/30, 10/07, 10/14, 10/28 (No Class 10/21)
Matisse and the Art of Making: The Cut-Out, Collage, and All That Jazz
8:00–9:50 p.m., 11/04, 11/11, 11/18, 12/02
8:00–9:50 p.m., 11/04, 11/11, 11/18, 12/02
