Henri Matisse – Forms in Freedom

Thanks to its unique collection, the Matisse Museum in Nice has become an establishment with international reach. In 2024, an international cooperation project with a very high level of scientific standards will present the treasures of the collection at the National Art Center in Tokyo. The Yomiuri Shimbun, the main Japanese press organ, whose culture branch has been organising exhibitions for more than 70 years, is behind the project.

This project, exceptional in its scale, is backed by a sponsorship agreement which has enabled the restoration of works by Henri Matisse in paper cut-outs, including the work Fleurs et fruits (Flowers and Fruits), which will be exhibited for the first time in Japan.

So, the Henri Matisse – Free Forms exhibition reveals for the first time to the Japanese public the extraordinary collection of the Matisse Museum in Nice through the exceptional loan of more than 150 works and objects from its collections. Known to be one of the most important sets of works by the artist anywhere in the world, this collection was made up of successive donations by the artist and his heirs to the City of Nice. The collection covers all periods of the master’s creation, from his first paintings to his final projects. Coming from the artist’s studio, this collection also offers a unique insight into the intimacy of the creation of one of the greatest masters of colour from the 20th century.

The Tokyo National Art Center exhibition will benefit from the special loan of the large cut-out Fleurs et fruits from 1952, which entered the museum’s collections in 1963 and is one of the largest cut-outs by Henri Matisse preserved in European public collections. The curators Claudine Grammont and Naoki Yoneda therefore wanted to focus on the cut-outs of which the Matisse Museum in Nice has a very rich collection.

This liberating technique established itself as Henri Matisse’s favourite mode of expression at the end of his artistic career, between 1947 and 1954. By cutting out directly in colour, it reminded him of the direct cutting of sculptors, but was also a way of drawing in colour. The cut-outs profoundly renewed his art by opening it to other decorative possibilities and allowed him to realise his dream of large wall decoration through the design of the Chapel of Vence. First trialled for book illustrations, notably the album Jazz published in 1947, cut-outs would gradually take over the walls of his studio: free, light, mobile forms that the artist moved and assembled as his imagination dictated. In five stages, the exhibition route leads the visitor to this final apotheosis. Major pieces such as the Creole Dancer, Blue Nude IV, as well as the extraordinary series of chasuble models will be on display. For the first time, a reconstruction in images of the luminous magic of the stained glass windows of the Chapel of Vence will be revealed.

Evoking the Chapel, Matisse wanted visitors, when faced with his work, to “experience a lightening of the spirit, […] [to] sense a milieu of spiritual elevation, where thought is clarified, where feeling itself is lightened. The benefit of the visit will come into being easily […].” (Charbonnier, 1960). In the same way, we hope that Japanese visitors will also be captivated by this joyful, free work. Entering the collection of the Matisse Museum will allow them to enter the intimacy of the Nice studio.