Curated by:
Yve-Alain Bois, Professor Emeritus, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, USA; assisted by Alix Agret, art historian and researcher
The Nice Matisse Museum and the Baltimore Museum of Art are collaborating to co-organize an exhibition dedicated to Henri Matisse’s Stations of the Cross, created for the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence, southern France.
This exhibition, which will be presented in Nice and in Baltimore, aims to explore the genesis of this unique mural work and to deepen our understanding of it. Although substantial literature exists on the Chapel of the Rosary, there have been few scholarly studies focused specifically on the Stations of the Cross. This is understandable, as Matisse conceived the chapel as a whole, a total artwork, in which no element was meant to be considered in isolation. However, it is striking that despite extensive attention given to the chapel’s stained-glass windows, this impressive ceramic panel has received relatively little scholarly mention.
At the heart of this exhibition are three sets of drawings —one from the Nice Matisse Museum, one from the Chapel of the Rosary’s collection and another from private collections. These will be exhibited alongside numerous archive items documenting the evolution of the project from its earliest drafts to its final realization.
Under the direction of Aymeric Jeudy, director of the Musée Matisse Nice, and Asma Naeem, Dorothy Wagner Wallis director of the Baltimore Museum of Art
Although the exhibition Henri Matisse. The Stations of the Cross has now come to an end, the content specially created for the Bloomberg Connects guide remains accessible here.