Matisse “Swimming Pool”
New York City sags after the holidays. Lights dimmed, the bells silenced and the joyous bustle gone. Relief for winter drabness can be found at 53rd and 5th Avenue at the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition “Henri Matisse: the Cut-Outs” through February 10, 2015. The exhibition assembles 100 works, the largest number ever on display. Colors and shapes lift spirits as they twirl and twist out a promise of springtime.
Matisse working from his wheelchair
Matisse found new life in the cutouts after going through a divorce, fighting cancer and fleeing the Nazis in 1940’s to Vence in Southern France. After a surgery, he found painting difficult and instead cut gouache-colored paper into shapes from his bed or in a wheelchair. Assistants pinned the forms to studio walls for him to view and rearrange. Cutouts brought him joy in the autumn of his life until he died at 84.
A highlight of the exhibition is the MoMA-owned cutout, “The Swimming Pool,” (1952) made for Matisse’s Nice dining room. The mural deteriorated and became a priority of MoMA’s determined conservation team. In this exhibition, paper swimmers float in the restored wraparound mural to the delight of museum-goers who have not seen it since the late 1990’s. A terrific video describes the process and shows photographs of the original installation in Matisse’s home.
“Nuit de Noel” Matisse’s familiar paper cutout for a stained glass window cannot help but return holiday energy to dreary New York streets.
The blue “Jazz” series complete with texture, folds, and pinholes dazzles in ways the flat poster reproductions cannot. Viewers will recognize images like the “Dancers” their shapes bending and stretching acround the exhibitions rooms.“Oceania, the Sea” brings the beach indoors with seaweed and marine life floating with the currents. Seeing these well-known images is like running into friends at a reunion.
Tickets beginning at 10:30 am are required for this popular show. Museum members may enter at 9:30 am before the general public without a timed ticket, a decided advantage to see the art without the crowds. Extended hours are available and on the final weekend, the Museum is open around the clock, a slumber party for night owls. Check MoMA website for details.If you missed the exhibit, take a walkthrough courtesy of the NYTimes.
