Matisse exhibition will drench Art Gallery of NSW in colour, as new building works are set to start
One of the most popular artists in history will be given centre stage in Sydney next year, in Matisse: life and spirit, masterpieces from the Centre Pompidou, Paris.
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One of the most popular artists in history will take centre stage in Sydney next year, in the exhibition Matisse: life and spirit, masterpieces from the Centre Pompidou, Paris.
Announcing the show today, the Art Gallery of NSW billed it as “the greatest single exhibition of (Henri) Matisse masterworks ever to be seen in Sydney”. It will be seen exclusively in this city and has been under development by both galleries for five years.
Matisse: life and spirit, masterpieces from the Centre Pompidou, Paris will open in November 2020 and close in March 2021. The Centre Pompidou in Paris “which holds an unparalleled collection of works by the artist”, the gallery said.
Matisse: life and spirit, masterpieces from the Centre Pompidou will travel to Australia as one half of the annual Sydney International Art Series, a collaboration with Destination NSW.
Its twin exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia will present works by leading contemporary American installation artist and filmmaker Doug Aitken.
AGNSW director Michael Brand — who also announced that construction of the gallery’s Sydney Modern expansion would begin on November 8 after a formal turning of the sod on November 7 — said the Sydney-exclusive Matisse exhibition covered the artist’s early adventures in colour as a Fauvist, through to the serene designs for his chapel in Vence in the south of France, covering six decades in total.
“Through paintings, drawings, sculptures and a compelling presentation of his triumphant cut-outs, it reveals how Matisse renewed his vision time and again acrsos his long career,” the gallery said.
Highlights included the Matisse masterpieces Le Luxe I, 1907; Decorative figure on an ornamental ground, 1925, and the self portrait The sorrow of the king, 1952.
AGNSW deputy director Maud Page said the Matisse exhibition was enormously exciting. “You will see over 100 works across six decades,” Page said.
The joint curators of the exhibition are Aurelie Verdier of the Pompidou, with Justin Paton and Jackie Dunn of the AGNSW. The exhibition space will be designed by prominent architect Richard Johnson.
Given Matisse’s 1930 trip to Tahiti, it is interesting that the AGNSW has invited four contemporary Australian artists to respond to the master’s islands-inspired works.
One of them in Angela Tiatia, who will produce a moving image work based on her research in Tahiti.
“I wanted to see Tahiti and see what Matisse had potentially seen,” Tiatia said.
The gallery yesterday announced the other elements of its 2020 season including exhibitions focusing on Australian-based artists Arthur Streeton, Margel Hinder and John Brack.