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Photos: Glorious Matisse Cut-Outs Open 10/12 At MoMA
By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 8, 2014
Modified Oct 12, 2014
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By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 8, 2014
Modified Oct 12, 2014
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Next Sunday, you'll be able to appreciate Henri Matisse's cut-outs in a stunning exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art. From MoMA's exhibit notes:
In the late 1940s, Henri Matisse turned almost exclusively to cut paper as his primary medium, and scissors as his chief implement, introducing a radically new operation that came to be called a cut-out. Matisse would cut painted sheets into forms of varying shapes and sizes—from the vegetal to the abstract—which he then arranged into lively compositions, striking for their play with color and contrast, their exploitation of decorative strategies, and their economy of means. Initially, these compositions were of modest size but, over time, their scale grew along with Matisse’s ambitions for them, expanding into mural or room-size works.
There are around 100 cut-outs of varying sizes in the Joan and Preston Robert Tisch Exhibition Gallery, making it the largest presentation of the works. MoMA adds, "The last time New York audiences were treated to an in-depth look at the cut-outs was in 1961."
Art critic Adrian Searle of The Guardian was transported by the cut-outs, which were previously on view at The Tate: "Ravishing, filled with light and decoration, exuberance and a kind of violence, Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs is about more than just pleasure. It charts not simply the consummation of the artist's long career but a kind of self-usurpation. In his last years, Matisse went beyond himself... How rich all this is, how marvellous, how alive."
Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs, opens on Monday, October 12 and closes February 8, 2015. Timed tickets are required (MoMA members do not need timed tickets).
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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