MATISSE & KELLY
Fondation Louis Vuitton
MATISSE & KELLY
Fondation Louis Vuitton
EXHIBITIONS AT THE FONDATION LOUIS VUITTON
HENRI MATISSE & ELLSWORTH KELLY
Matisse: L’Atelier Rouge (The Red Studio)
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Ellsworth Kelly: Shapes and Colours, 1949-2015
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Rendezvous with Sport (in the course of the Olympic Games)
Exhibitions at the Fondation Louis Vuitton
until 9 September 2024
This year, the Fondation Louis Vuitton is hosting a small exhibition on a special work by Henri Matisse. This exhibition was created in collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art and the Statens Museum for Art (Copenhagen).
And there is a bigger Exhibition about the works of the American artist Ellsworth Kelly.
And we have been there!
FONDATION LOUIS VUITTON
Tickets
Henri Matisse
Part 1
THE RED STUDIO
MATISSE
It is about the creation and history of the famous work from 1911 ‘L’Atelier Rouge’. The picture shows the artist’s studio. Here, he presents his paintings, sculptures and furniture that he had in his studio at the time. The special thing about this exhibition is that the works shown there are also on display! And thus is for the first time since they left this studio in Issy- les-Moulineaux!
We think this is a great and unusual idea for an exhibition.
Archive material and related paintings and drawings will also be shown so that the exhibition will not be too small.
What does the exhibition show?
For the first time since 1993, “The Red Studio” can be seen again in France. But not alone this time, because 10 of the 11 works of art that Matisse painted into the picture, as they stood and hung in his studio in 1911, are also on display! A master stroke by the curatorial team, if you ask us, because they really have been collected from all over the world: from museums in Copenhagen, Toronto, New York, Basel, Cologne and also from private collectors.
There are six paintings, a ceramic plate and three sculptures that Matisse created in the 13 years before the “Red Studio” was built.
The paintings are as follows:
Corsica, The Old Mill (1898)
Le Luxe (II) (1906)
The Young Sailor (II) (1907)
Bathers (1907)
The Nude with the White Scarf (1909)
Cyclamen (1911).
Matisse considered a seventh painting to be unfinished and therefore ordered it to be destroyed after his death. This is also documented in the exhibition.
The ceramic plate shows a nude in blue on a white background. A terracotta sculpture, the bronze Jeanette (IV) (1911) and another bronze sculpture in, well, a very explicit pose, which Matisse simply titled “Decorative Figure” (1908), complete the collection.
Fun fact: The women who modelled for Matisse’s bronzes were probably not quite up to his standards, so he simply retouched his depictions. Compared to the model, the “Decorative Figure” is rendered more slender and elegant and Jeanette’s hair and nose have also been properly “modelled”.
The interesting thing about the “Red Studio” is that Matisse obviously only applied the striking red colour in a final, last-minute step. There is a fascinating interview with the conservation team at the MoMA (you can watch it online here). The artist himself commented: “I can’t really say where I got the colour red from. I find that all these things … only become what they are for me when I see them together with the colour red.”
The first version of the picture that Matisse painted for Shchuckin, the “Pink Studio”, is also part of the exhibition and is a much more faithful reproduction of his studio. But judging by his quote, the original surroundings played less of a role for Matisse than the fact that his studio portrait only felt “right” with this bright red colour.
Further paintings, drawings and silhouettes by Matisse are on display in a second room. A particular focus is on “Large Red Interior” (1948), which clearly illustrates his development as an artist, as it was created a full 37 years after the “Red Studio”. There is also plenty of archive material, such as letters and documents, to illustrate the creation and journey of the painting to the present day.
The premises of the former Sacré-Coeur monastery, where Matisse lived and worked in 1909, were only rented and were to be sold. This forced him to move from Paris to the suburb of Issy-les-Moulineaux. Here, thanks to his financially strong sponsor Shchuckin, he was able to acquire a fairly large piece of land with a garden and had a residential building with a studio built there.
Two years later, Shchuckin ordered three murals for his Moscow residence. As Matisse had a free hand in the choice of motifs, he simply painted his studio and called it “The Pink Studio”. His client invited him to visit Moscow to see the place where the paintings were to hang. On his return, Matisse painted a second version of the picture – “The Red Studio”. However, Shchuckin did not like it and kindly told Matisse that he preferred paintings with figurative depictions, as the artist had provided him with on previous commissions (including one of his most famous paintings today, “The Dance”).
The artist was offended and made sure that the work was not exhibited in France at first. It was first shown in London in the autumn of 1912, and later in New York. In 1927, it was bought by London nightclub owner David Tennant and graced the dance hall for 13 years. At the end of the 1930s, Tennant commissioned a gallery to sell it, which in turn sold it to another gallery in New York in 1945.
In 1948, after two years of negotiations, the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) succeeded in acquiring the painting. A year later, it was presented to the public for the first time and has inspired artists and art lovers alike ever since.
HOW WAS "L'ATELIER ROUGE" CREATED
AND WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?
Henri Matisse was born in 1869 in Le Cateau-Cambrésis in the north of France. He initially studied law and only painted on the side, even working as a paralegal at times.
He then wanted to study art in Paris, failed the entrance exam twice, but finally made it in the summer of 1895 and studied under Gustave Moreau, among others. Together with André Durain, he developed the style known as “Fauvism” with powerful colours (inspired by Islamic ornaments) and bold brushstrokes. The name comes from the fact that a critic once called them “Les Fauves” (the wild animals).
In 1906, Matisse met the Russian industrialist Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin, who became his best client. In the same year he also met Picasso (12 years later there was a joint exhibition in Paris). In 1908, a Paris salon shows his first retrospective, followed by a major solo exhibition in Berlin in 1909.
In the same year, Matisse moved with his family to the Parisian suburb of Issy-les-Moulineaux. The First World War forced him back to Paris in 1914, as his house was requisitioned by the army. This was a truly “dark time”, as can be seen in his colour palette, which became much gloomier.
Matisse moved to Nice at the end of 1917, but continued to spend the summers in Paris – and the colours of his paintings regained their vibrancy. His career took off and in 1931 his works were exhibited in a major retrospective in New York.
In 1943, he moved to Vence, near Nice, because of the Second World War. He suffered from stomach cancer and had to have an operation, which meant that he could no longer stand upright in front of an easel. He therefore switched to the technique of silhouettes, which characterised his second creative period until his death.
Five years later, he designed the now famous Rosary Chapel for the Dominican nuns in Vence. Architecture, wall decorations, stained-glass windows, furnishings: everything comes from him. In 1954, the French pavilion at the Venice Biennale shows six paintings and the five-part sculpture series “Jeanette”.
In November of the same year, the artist died of a heart attack in Nice at the age of 84.
Who was
Henri Matisse
ELLSWORTH KELLY
Part 2
SHAPES AND COLOURS, 1949-2015
ELLSWORTH KELLY
The ‘Red Studio’, which is over 110 years old, is also regarded as a fundamental model for all later studio depictions by other artists. A touchstone, so to speak. This includes Ellsworth Kelly, whose retrospective “Forms and Colours, 1949-2015” can be seen at the FLV during the same period.
This exhibition on the American artist Kelly shows his exploration of the relationship between form, colour, line and space through key works from different periods of his career.
He is considered one of the most important abstract painters and sculptors in America. More than 100 of his paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, and collages are presented on two floors of the building. His exhibition therefore takes up much more space than Matisse’s!
The curriculum vitae presented at the beginning of the film provides several links to Matisse.
In 1964, Kelly visited the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence. In 2002, works by both artists were exhibited together, also in Paris, at the Centre Pompidou. The theme: depictions of plants. Some of Kelly’s works on this theme are now also hanging in the Fondation Louis Vuitton. However, the influence that Matisse had on Kelly is probably most evident in the exhibition that Kelly curated in 2014. He selected 45 rather unknown Matisse drawings and added nine of his lithographs. It was the French artist’s expressive lines that inspired him the most.
But Monet was also a source of inspiration for Kelly. In 1952, he visited Monet’s studio and garden in Giverny and then painted “Tableau Vert”, which is very reminiscent of the water lily paintings and stands out completely from his other works (you can read his own commentary on Instagram).
Kelly mixes sculpture and painting, colour and form in a unique way, playing with the background and the space in which or on which the works are presented. One highlight (in the truest sense of the word) that clearly demonstrates this is certainly “Yellow Curve” (1990). Speaking of plants…who as a child also liked to hold a buttercup under their chin so that it cast a golden yellow shadow on their skin? The impression is similar, as the plant lies on the floor and bathes the entire room in yellow light. You can follow the process of its creation in a display case in front of it.
IN THE COURSE OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES
RENDEZVOUS WITH SPORT
As part of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, the Fondation Louis Vuitton is exhibiting a number of works from its collection that take a poetic or slightly different look at the theme of sport. From Gallery 9 to Gallery 11, works by French and international artists will be on display.
Among others:
Abraham Poincheval (1972, France)
Andreas Gursky (1955, Germany)
Roman Signer (1938, Switzerland)
Omar Victor Diop (1980, Senegal)
Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960 – 1988, USA)
Andy Warhol (1928 – 1987, USA)
Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol, Olympic Rings, 1985
Collection Éditions Enrico Navarra
Credit : © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat Licensed by Artestar, New York, © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by ADAGP, Paris 2024
Photo credits: © Fondation Louis Vuitton / Saywho / Antoine Ayka Lux
Seeing Matisse’s masterpiece with the portrayed objects in the original in one room – that was a real goosebump moment.
For this alone, I think it’s worth planning a trip to Paris until 9 September, when the two exhibitions end (but remember that the Olympic Games are taking place from 26 July to 11 August…).
Personally, I couldn’t quite get to grips with Kelly, but I found the inspiration from Matisse and Monet exciting, as well as his understanding of art (I’ll let him have the last word):
“I think what we all want from art is for it to give us consistency, a kind of counterpart to the chaos of everyday life. That’s an illusion, of course. Canvas rots. Colour changes. But you continue to strive to freeze the world, as if by doing so you could preserve it for eternity. I have tried to capture the reality of change, to preserve art as an open, unfinished situation, to suggest the intoxication of seeing.”
Yours
Anne
Text- and Image rights: © Céline Mülich, 2024
With the support of Amme Okolowitz.
Exception image rights: Olympic-Picture from the Press page of the Fondation Louis Vuitton.
