HENRY MATISS "PASSION FOR COLOR"

“Paints in painting only possess power and expressiveness when they are used in their pure form.”
Henri Matisse

In autumn 2019, the Altmans Gallery will present an exhibition dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the eminent French artist, leader of the Fauvism movement (from French fauve - wild) Henri Matisse’s “Passion for Color”. The new Altmans Gallery project is truly unique: “Passion for color” will be the only anniversary exhibition of Henri Matisse, not only in Russia, but throughout Eastern Europe. In addition, “Passion for Color” is the first mono-exhibition of the artist’s lithographs in Moscow: the exposition will introduce the artist’s rare works, little known to a wide audience.

The exhibition will mark the main stages of Matisse’s career: from cult works, among which the “Dance” created especially for the collector’s mansion of S. I. Schukin (at the “Passion for Color” exhibition, visitors will get acquainted with a version of the “Dance” of 1938, which was not presented earlier), to bold coloristic and rhythmic experiments, embodied in the series "Jazz". The main task of the exhibition is to show the work of the master with color in the late period of creativity. Thus, the lithographs of applications created by the artist in the period from 1938 to 1954 will become the central works at the exhibition.

After a difficult operation in 1941, Matisse could no longer create paintings and began to work in the technique, which until now has been addressed only occasionally, in the decoupage technique (from French découper - cut out). Matisse painted over the sheets of paper with gouache, and then cut out from them figures that he arranged on paper according to his artistic idea. Thus, plastic expressiveness and color expression, which have become decisive in the entire work of Matisse, embodied in a new form.

The exposition is based on 31 lithographs from the Verve art collections of different years (including the almanac released after the artist’s death and devoted entirely to Matisse’s work). The exposition will also be supplemented by 2 earlier works from the Ten Dancers series.

All works from the exhibition will be available in the gallery.

The exhibition will include an educational program: master classes and lectures on the work and fate of Matisse, new directions in the art of the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, as well as the artistic life of that time as a whole.

In mid-November, visitors will be able to attend a special screening of a BBC television documentary on the work of Henri Matisse with comments by Natalia Semenova, biographer Sergei Schukin and brothers Morozov, Ph.D. in art, translator of the book “Henri Matisse” from the ZhZL series, and scientific consultant to the exhibition Schukin. Biography of the collection ”in the Pushkin Museum. A.S. Pushkin.

Exhibition curator: Natalia Tukolkina-Okhota
Gallery Director: Elena Belanova
Gallery owners: Egor and Christina Altman
Egor Altman, founder and co-owner of Altmans Gallery:

“I personally really love the black and white works of Henri Matisse, and they will be presented at our exhibition - beautiful images of ballet dancers from the Ten Dancers series. Also in our collection is a reversal of the world famous “Dance”, made by the artist much later than the original work. It seems to me that all Matisse’s work is one continuous dance - a dance of figures, a dance of light, a dance of color. In addition, with this work - lithographic reproduction of “Dance” - we wanted to emphasize the artist’s connection with Russia, because, as we all know, the famous painting was commissioned by Moscow collector Sergei Schukin. Therefore, the concept of the exhibition is based not only on color, but also on rhythm, movement, so familiar to Moscow - a vibrant, vibrant city that itself seems to be dancing. Matisse’s works, filled with color and life, in this sense “fit” our capital perfectly. ”