-
Grande tête de Katia -
Le clown -
Maquette du vitrail Vigne -
Matisse working at home
WORDS Eugene Yiga
The Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg is set to host an exhibition of works by renowned French artist Henri Matisse (1869 – 1954).
For Federico Freschi, South African curator and Executive Dean: Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture at the University of Johannesburg, it’s an exciting prospect.
“The bulk of the work will come from the Matisse Museum in Le Cateau-Cambrésis, a small town in the north of France that was Matisse’s birthplace,” he says. “Matisse himself led the establishment of the museum there in the 1950s and donated a significant number of artworks as the founding collection.”
The exhibition will also loan works from the Matisse Museum in Nice and from private collectors in France. Furthermore, there will be three lithographs that are in the permanent collection of the Johannesburg Art Gallery.
“Matisse remains one of the most popular artists of all time, and in any given year one is likely to encounter at least one major Matisse exhibition somewhere in the world,” Freschi says. “The blockbuster exhibition Matisse: the Cut-Outs (held at the Tate Modern in London in 2014) received 562 622 visitors, making it the most popular exhibition ever held there. For Nicholas Serota, the Tate’s director, this was a ‘testament to the power and accessibility of Matisse’s work’.”
Serota added that the exhibition “captured imaginations of visitors of all ages”. With so much to look forward to in the South African exhibition, Freschi believes it will do the same.
Henri Matisse | Rhythm and Meaning will be held from 13 July to 17 September 2016. It is presented by Standard Bank in partnership with the Embassy of France in South Africa and the French Institute of South Africa; and with the support of Air France, Total and Air Liquide.
