Jazz, a major work to be experienced through music in the exhibition "Matisse 1941–1954"

Jazz, a laboratory for an artistic revolution

Commissioned in 1943 by the publisher Tériade, the illustrated book Jazz occupies a pivotal place in Matisse’s oeuvre. Conceived as an artist’s book, it gradually became a testing ground for a new technique: cut-out gouache-painted papers. As he worked on it, Matisse discovered a visual language of unprecedented freedom.

Contrary to what its title might suggest, Jazz does not depict the world of music. For Matisse, the word evokes above all improvisation, rhythm, and creative energy. Like a jazz musician, he invents as he goes, allowing vibrant colors and cut-out shapes to interact in a continuous flow. 

The exhibition brings together, for the first time, the album and its mockup. Presented in a circular space and accompanied by an original electroacoustic composition by Claudia Jane Scroccaro, an artist affiliated with IRCAM, they offer a sensory exploration of this iconic work. Images and sounds interact to convey what Matisse was seeking: a balance between rhythm, color, and movement.

Focus: “The Fall of Icarus,” an image that has become iconic

Among the most famous illustrations by Jazz, “The Fall of Icarus” holds a special place. On display at the Grand Palais thanks to an exceptional loan, this striking composition combines a black silhouette, a vibrant red shape, and a blue background studded with stars. It demonstrates the expressive power that Matisse was able to achieve with just a few cut-out shapes and bold colors, at the very moment he was inventing an entirely new visual language.

A Garden of shapes and colors

Far from being a mere epilogue to Matisse’s career, the cut-out gouaches open up a whole new realm of creativity. In his studio in Nice, colorful shapes gradually take over the walls, shifting, rearranging themselves, and interacting with the space. Through Jazz, as well as the large-scale, monumental cut-outs and the projects created for the Chapel of Vence, the exhibition reveals the full vitality of a period that curator Claudine Grammont sums up in two words: “a moment of grace.”

Jazz is much more than an artist’s book: it is the laboratory in which Matisse invented the language of cut-out gouache papers that would define the final years of his creative career. Go behind the scenes of this legendary work and its exceptional reissue on the occasion of the exhibition on the Centre Pompidou website.