Matisse: In Search of True Painting

Interior in Yellow and Blue, 1946, Centre Pompidou, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris. Copyright 2012 Succession H. Matisse/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. 

Interior in Venetian Red, 1946, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels. Copyright 2012 Succession H. Matisse/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. 

Throughout his career, Henri Matisse (1869-1954) repainted and reevaluated his work. He used his completed canvases as tools, repeating compositions in order to compare effects, gauge his progress, and, as he put it, "push further and deeper into true painting."

While this manner of working with pairs, trios and series is not unique to Matisse, his methodical progress from one painting to the next is striking. Matisse: In Search of True Painting presents this particular aspect of Matisse's painting process by showcasing 49 canvases. 

Matisse copied old master paintings, yet was also receptive to the contemporary pictures he encountered in galleries. He was particularly intrigued by the work of Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) and Paul Signac (1863-1935). Matisse borrowed stylistic elements from the two artists. 

His stylistic exploration sparked the creation of pairs in which neither painting is entirely indebted to another artist. Seen together, the pairs underscore issues that intrigued him: means of representation, the role of color, the idea of what constitutes a finished canvas. Painting in pairs on canvases of the same size offered Matisse alternate solutions to any given pictorial challenge. 

Large Red Interior, 1948, Centre Pompidou, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris. Copyright 2012 Succession H. Matisse/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. 

Interior with an Egyptian Curtain, 1948, The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC. Copyright 2012 Succession H. Matisse/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. 

The theme of the studio interior--a consistent motif in Matisse's oeuvre throughout his career--was addressed in Matisse's final painted series, created from 1944 to 1948. They were first shown at Pierre Matisse's  New York gallery, displayed unframed so that viewers would feel embraced and transported by the color. 

On view through March 17 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York.