Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs

Henri Matisse is a giant of modern art. 120 pieces will be exhibited – spanning the artists creativity between between 1943 and 1954. This landmark show explores the final chapter in his career in which Matisse began ‘carving into colour’ and his series of dazzling cut-outs give visitors a chance to see so many of the artist’s works in one place and discover Matisse’s final artistic triumph.

Henry Matisse was a fauvist and Nice resident from 1917 until his death in 1954. He was a revolutionary, very much like Renoir, Cézanne and Picasso. And like them he also saw the essential character of things but he did this through simple graphic images filled with to quote his own words ‘balance, purity and serenity’.

In our latest Globe Trekker special – The Art Trails of the Riviera, we take a trip to the South of France to retrace the steps of the greatest modern artists who flocked to this part of France and made it their home. Here they found colour, light and a sea of rich patrons. In return for their patronage the artists brought light and colour and gave birth to impressionism, expressionism and surrealism.

Before he died, Matisse fell in love with a Dominican Nun and commissioned a chapel in Saint Paul de Vence,  the artistic hub of France, in her honour.  Matisse started work on the chapel in 1947 when he was 77. It took 4 years to complete. He wasn’t at all religious but here he went all out to search for what he called, his “truth”.  Matisse described this chapel as ‘an expression of the nearly religious feeling I have for life.’ It was the culmination of a lifetime’s work.

by Zaynin Kanji