[title subtitle=”words:Marla Cantrell
Images: L’Algérienne, 1909. Oil on canvas. Centre Pompidou, Paris. Musée national d’art moderne – Centre de création industrielle, AM 2009-214. ©2015 Succession H. Matisse/Artists Rights Society (ARS), N Y”][/title]
In Oklahoma City, not quite 200 miles from Fort Smith, Arkansas, nearly fifty of Henri Matisse’s paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints are on display through September 18. This exhibit at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art is one of only three international venues to host the exhibition, and is the only one outside Europe.
The exhibit was organized by the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Europe’s leading museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, in collaboration with OKCMOA. You’ll see the full scope of Matisse’s extraordinary career, dating from the late nineteenth century to after World War II. In addition to these treasures, Matisse in His Time: Masterworks of Modernism from the Centre Pompidou, Paris, also features fifty additional major pieces, including iconic works by Picasso, as well as Renoir, André Derain, Georges Braque, Joan Miró, and Amedeo Modigliani.
But the focus is on Matisse, one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century, who was born on the last day of 1869, in northern France, and died on November 3, 1954. He is often called the greatest colorist of the twentieth century. The brilliant colors, along with his use of exaggerated forms, earned Matisse a great following. He once said,”I do not literally paint that table, but the emotion it produces upon me.”
Years ago, when I was decorating my first house and had little money to do so, I ordered a poster of Matisse’s “Goldfish.” The original painting is filled with color, pinks and black and blue-green and orange, but the eye goes directly to the fish. Even in the mass-produced poster, you could feel the emotion Matisse talks about. I read later that he painted the original in 1912, after a trip to Morocco where he’d seen the locals staring for hours at goldfish bowls.
That poster started my obsession with Matisse. I’ve even been to the Centre Pompidou in Paris, during the trip of a lifetime, and I am going to Oklahoma City to see Matisse’s work again. While that poster I bought years ago captured some of what is best about Matisse, there is nothing like seeing his work in person.
This opportunity to see these masterpieces is worth the drive. I would advise you to visit the museum’s website, however, and order your tickets in advance, so you don’t miss out. Your ticket will also allow you to see the Oklahoma City Museum of Art’s permanent collection, which includes drawings and glasswork by Dale Chihuly.
Matisse in His Time at Oklahoma City Museum of Art
415 Couch Drive
Oklahoma City
405.236.3100
okcmoa.com
Tickets (Book in advance to make sure you don’t miss out.)
Adults $12
Seniors, and children 6-8, $10
5 and younger, Free
Exhibit runs through September 18.