Art Institute debuts Matisse exhibit Saturday
The Art Institute opens a "landmark" Henri Matisse exhibit Saturday, with its own "Bathers by a River" as the centerpiece.
"Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913-1917" examines what Art Institute curator Stephanie D'Alessandro called an "amazingly inventive" if brief era in the career of one of the most renowned artists of the 20th century, "a period much colored by World War I," she added, and in which he came to terms with that calamity on a human scale even as he confronted the challenges of cubism on an aesthetic level.
The exhibit makes a strong case for that argument. An explosion of blue canvasses in 1913 leads directly into Matisse employing a more stark palette with simpler, more essential forms, even as he began to explore methods such as scraping away layers of paint and adding additional layers to refine his vision.
"Bathers," of course, is given a star position, just as it usually is in the museum's 20th-century collection in the new Modern Wing. Not only does it occupy the main wall in a large room, but a blocked-off cutaway hallway gives visitors an early glimpse of it from afar even as they're just beginning to follow Matisse's progression.
The exhibition is a joint creation with New York City's Museum of Modern Art, which lends "The Moroccans" to the display. Both are art in its essence, with no wasted forms or even lines - triumphs of aesthetic order in a world at war.
"Still Life After Jan Davidsz de Heem's 'La Desserte,'" meanwhile, is a story in itself, Matisse refracting an earlier copy he'd made of an old master while under the tutelage of Gustave Moreau through the prism of cubism, while keeping the painting representational enough so that it never loses touch with the original. They're displayed side by side.
Yes, the Art Institute and MOMA are trying to elevate the importance of their own paintings, but it's not as if those paintings don't already occupy an essential place in art history. "They're brought together because they tell the story," said James Cuno, the Art Institute's president and director. It's the tale of a period when Matisse "radically rethought his practice," Cuno added, and that he would return to for inspiration later on.
"This is an exhibition that requires long, close looking and that rewards long, close looking," Cuno said. To that end, it will run through June 20, and beginning next week the Art Institute will extend its hours from 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday, just as on Thursday, in addition to the usual 10:30 to 5 on other weekdays and 10 to 5 on weekends. The first hour of the day and Thursday evenings from 5 to 8, however, the exhibit is restricted to museum members. No special tickets are necessary under the museum's new admission policy instituted last year, with fees of $18, $12 for students and seniors. Children under 14 are free.