In the bright light of his final years, Matisse invented a new language: that of cut-out forms and pure color. More than 230 paintings, drawings, books and cut-out gouaches retrace, between 1941 and 1954, the journey of a free artist in perpetual motion.
The exhibition Matisse. 1941-1954 sheds light on the final years of Henri Matisse's career, between 1941 and 1954, through more than 230 works - paintings, drawings, cut-out gouaches, illustrated books, textiles and stained glass - from the Centre Pompidou collection and major international loans. It reveals the multidisciplinary scope of his practice during this period, while bringing together an exceptional group of cut-out gouaches.
At nearly eighty years old, Matisse reinvented himself through the medium of the cut-out gouache — which he elevated into an autonomous visual language, free and capable of reaching the universal through its simplicity. Adapted both to reproduction and to monumental commissions, this technique allowed him to fully express the decorative dimension of his art.
The exhibition shows how painting remains at the heart of his approach, far from being supplanted by cut-outs: on the contrary, it unfolds with ever greater space, intensity and color. Among the major ensembles gathered here are the majestic and final of Intérieurs de Vence series from 1947-1948, the album Jazz, the series of Thèmes et variations as well as the brush-and-ink drawings; the main elements of the Chapelle de Vence program; the monumental panels of La Gerbe et des Acanthes, and as as a crowning moment, brought together exceptionally, the great cut-out figures: La Tristesse du roi, Zulma, La Danseuse créole and the famous Nus bleus.
Conceived as a journey through the painter’s universe, the exhibition recreates the vibrant atmosphere of his ever-changing studio. An invitation to discover Matisse’s flourishing “garden,” room after room.
