The Gallery recently acquired Henri Matisse’s illustrated book Jazz (1947), one of the most famous graphic works of the 20th century.
In Matisse’s first major ‘cut-out’ project, realism and abstraction are finally reconciled at the end of a life-long tension. With the cut-out technique, Matisse felt he had finally solved the problems of form and space, outline and colour. ‘It is not a beginning, it is an endpoint’, the artist stated.
Matisse’s formal experimentation began five decades earlier, when he and his peers rejected their impressionist heritage and discovered the work of three essential ‘forgotten’ artists – Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh. Pictorial innovations, including fauvism and cubism, soon followed.
Matisse and Pablo Picasso played the most significant roles in this drive toward modernity, despite their very different trajectories and personalities.
A selection of works by both artists is presented here alongside other key paintings from the Gallery’s collection, offering an opportunity to appreciate the new horizons that they opened up and the reasons for their lasting influence on modern and contemporary art.