Matisse: Life & Spirit, Masterpieces from the Centre Pompidou, Paris
Art Gallery of NSW
Sydney, Australia
November 28, 2021
Henri Matisse has channelled his alchemy in an idiosyncratically fluid, vibrant radically simplified way of painting that had the focus of his draughtsmanship firmly set on the electrifying effects of its style rather than what is actually depicted in the works.
Sourced almost exclusively from the collections of the Centre Pompidou, Paris and further substantiated by artworks sourced from collections on terra australis, the Art Gallery of New South Wales set out to shed light on the oeuvre of Matisse via paintings traversing Matisse’s emissions ranging from his smaller toned down paintings to large-scale, coloured paper cuts to culminate in impressively bold compositions that would reverberate and prove inspirational to later schools of abstract art.
The focus of the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ exhibition is set less on Matisse’s wild experimentalism and rather zeroes in on his more elegant and calm explorations in the decorative realm of colour and form, which are characterized by the use of strident hues and confident, often unconventional abstract brush strokes.
In essence, Matisse: Life & Spirit is not only the largest exhibition of Matisse in Sydney but an intimate, well curated journey through Matisse’s life that spans six decades and documents via over one hundred exhibits in a contextualised and immersive manner both the becoming and later reinvention of a complex artist.
An artist whose legacy in terms of pronounced and playful use of colours to bring objects to life continues to lift spirits, which defines the very core and DNA of the fauvist movement and artistic modernism.
Matisse: Life & Spirit is accompanied by Matisse Alive, which extends the core exhibition by offering a gallery-wide free endeavour to inspire dialogue via performance, music and art informed by Matisse’s life and dynamic approach to the use of colour and energy.
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image from AGNSW website
