SMK (The National Gallery of Denmark)
New exhibition: Iconic Matisse painting comes to Denmark
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Copenhagen (ots)
For the first time ever, an exhibition reunites Henri Matisse's iconic painting The Red Studio with all the artworks depicted in it. Opening at SMK (The National Gallery of Denmark) in October, the exhibition is created in close collaboration with The Museum of Modern Art in New York, where it has just been on view.
The famous painting The Red Studio was created in 1911 by the French artist Henri Matisse (1869-1954). Matisse is regarded as one of the great masters of twentieth century art, and this particular painting is considered a landmark - not just within Matisse's art, but in European modernism as a whole. The picture now belongs to The Museum of Modern Art in New York. It ranks among the museum's most important and popular works, and is loaned only on extremely rare occasions.
Measuring approximately 180 x 220 cm, the canvas shows Matisse's studio in the Parisian suburb of Issy-les-Moulineaux, filled with the artist's own paintings, sculptures and decorative objects. The most remarkable feature of the picture is that the walls, floor and furniture of studio are painted in the same shade of red.
The artworks depicted in The Red Studio left the artist's studio more than one hundred years ago and were dispersed, but now MoMA and SMK are reuniting them for the first time ever in an exhibition. The exhibition opens at SMK on 13 October, after having been shown at MoMA earlier this year to critical and popular acclaim.
Rediscovered works and highlights from SMK
The tightly focused exhibition offers a unique opportunity to see The Red Studio in Denmark while also enabling visitors to delve deep into Matisse's choice of subject matter and working methods.
The core of the exhibition features The Red Studio alongside the surviving paintings and sculptures depicted in it. All the works date from the period 1898 to 1911. Several of them are well-documented and famous Matisse works, while others are lesser-known pieces whose locations have only recently been discovered . Only a single work is missing, as it was destroyed after Matisse's death at his own request.
Three of the paintings depicted in The Red Studio belong to SMK and constitute major highlights within the museum's collection. These are the works Le Luxe II (1907-1908), Nude with a While Scarf (1909) and Bathers (1907). Acquired for the museum in 2018, the latter was known as Nymph and Faun until recently. However, the research undertaken in connection with this exhibition unearthed a private note from Matisse, revealing the original title of the work.
From an English nightclub to the MoMA collection
The exhibition also features a range of other paintings and drawings by Matisse closely associated with The Red Studio. A selection of original photos, letters and documents - several of which had never been on public display before being shown at MoMA and now at SMK - reveal new knowledge about the subject and history of the painting.
The archival materials unfold the story of The Red Studio's unusual journey. The work was commissioned by the Russian collector Sergei Shchukin, who had given Matisse free rein to select whatever subject he wished. Even so, when Shchukin received a sketch of The Red Studio, he declined to buy it. The work remained with Matisse for almost sixteen years and was exhibited only a few times before it was purchased in 1927 by the owner of the exclusive Gargoyle Club in London. Here it remained until the early 1940s, placed in a room filled with smoke, music, dancing and cocktails, forming a backdrop for conversations on art and culture. The painting was acquired for MoMA's collection in 1949.
The exhibition also presents new technical studies of The Red Studio, which reveal that Matisse made the decision to cover the walls, floor and furniture with a uniform red colour at a late stage of the process. This radical move has inspired generations of artists, and its significance is still debated today.
13 October 2022 - 26 February 2023
Matisse: The Red Studio is organized by SMK - The National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen and The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Press view
Tuesday 11 October 9.30-12.00 am
Please confirm your attendance in advance at presse@smk.dk
The exhibition is supported by the A.P. Møllerand Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller Foundation, The AugustinusFoundation and the Novo Nordisk Foundation.
For inquiries, please contact:
Michala Rosendahl
Press
M: miro@smk.dk
T: +45 2552 7279
Original content of: SMK (The National Gallery of Denmark), transmitted by news aktuell
