Edited by Ellen McBreen, Helen Burnham. Text by Suzanne Preston Blier, Ann Dumas, Jack Flam, Claudine Grammont, Hélène Ivanoff, Marie-Thérèse Pulvenis de Seligny.
The personal objects in Matisse’s studio form a secret history in his art
This book is the first in English to explore the essential role that Henri Matisse’s personal collection of objects played in his studio practice. The artist traveled with his collection even to temporary residences, and letters to family members often included requests for objects to be moved to where he was working, revealing them to be critical creative stimulants. Featured frequently in the modern master’s bold paintings, drawings and cutouts, and influencing the development of his work in sculpture, Matisse’s objects formed a secret history hiding in plain sight.
Works that span Matisse’s entire career are presented here alongside the objects that inspired them, from Asian vases and African masks to intricate textiles from the Islamic world. An introduction and five chapters take readers through studies of the object as actor and the studio as theater, the importance of African art in Matisse’s renderings of the human form and his sitters’ inner selves, and the invention and transformation of his own language of signs. With lush illustrations and archival images, Matisse in the Studio provides exceptional insights into the artist at work.
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) was a painter, draftsman, sculptor and printmaker before turning to paper cut-outs in the 1940s. He followed a career-long path that he described as “construction by means of color.”
Ellen McBreen is Associate Professor of Art History at Wheaton College, Massachusetts.
Helen Burnham is Pamela and Peter Voss Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Suzanne Preston Blier is Allen Whitehill Clowes Professor of Fine Arts and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University.
Ann Dumas is Curator at the Royal Academy of Arts, London.
Jack Flam is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Art and Art History at Brooklyn College and The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and President of the Dedalus Foundation.
Claudine Grammont is Director and Chief Curator of the Musée Matisse, Nice.
Hélène Ivanoff is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Frobenius Institute of Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt.
Marie-Thérèse Pulvenis de Seligny is the former Director and Chief Curator of the Musée Matisse, Nice.
"Blue Nude (Memory of Biskra)" (1907) is reproduced from 'Matisse in the Studio.'
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Art & Antiques
John Dorfman
As the same rotating cast of inanimate characters appears again and again in the paintings, we realize that what we are seeing is a memory play, a chronicle of the interaction over time between objects and owner.
Boston Globe
Nina Maclaughlin
Matisse in the Studio …focuses on the artist’s relationship with his objects…— a seaglass green vessel, a Congolese mask, North African tapestries — paired with the paintings where they appear. The result is a heightened sense of intimacy with his already sensual, summery paintings, and gives a glimpse into the studio — and mental — space of the artist.
The Wall Street Journal
Eric Gibson
I can think of no other exhibition that has told us so much about what artists do and how they think.
Hyperallergic
Debbie Hagan
...Matisse loved beautiful, well-designed objects and had collected more than 200 by his death in 1954... they served him as visual references that opened his mind to new possibilities in seeing and creating.
Around 1898, Henri Matisse received a silver chocolate pot as a wedding gift from friend and fellow artist, Albert Marquet. This object made its way into at least nine artworks featured in MFA Boston's catalogue to the illuminating exhibition, Matisse in the Studio, which places artworks alongside photographs of the objects within them, or which inspired them. The chocolate pot makes a cameo in the 1914 painting "Still Life with Lemons," pictured here. Other times it appears as a vase, with peaches, in a study of herons and alongside a young girl reading. continue to blog
"Vase of Flowers" (1924) is reproduced from Matisse in the Studio by MFA Boston. Called "nothing short of a revelation—and not just about Matisse," by Eric Gibson of the Wall Street Journal,Matisse in the Studio pairs objects from the artist's studio with the paintings, drawings, sculpture and cut-outs in which they appear. "I can think of no other exhibition that has told us so much about what artists do and how they think," Gibson concludes. This is a book for every shelf, every table, and every artist's studio. The perfect gift, and, amazingly, a book on Matisse that has never been done before. continue to blog
On April 9, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston opened Matisse in the Studio, the first major international exhibition to examine not just the paintings, but the objects painted. Matisse's home and studio were notoriously dynamic, packed with stimulating objects, vibrant colors and seductive textures - all of which made it into the work in one way or another. "Yellow Odalisque" (1937) is reproduced from the deluxe, linen-bound catalog to the show, which features photographs of the objects alongside the paintings in which they appear. "Here and there," curator Georges Salles wrote in 1952, Matisse's work found "reflections in marble, in gilt wood, faïnce, Oriental cloths—a whole curio shop for some daily magic: apparatus of a fantastic laboratory of visual alchemy." continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 9 x 11 in. / 216 pgs / 190 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $55.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $72.5 GBP £40.00 ISBN: 9780878468430 PUBLISHER: MFA Publications, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston AVAILABLE: 4/25/2017 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of print AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: WORLD
Published by MFA Publications, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Edited by Ellen McBreen, Helen Burnham. Text by Suzanne Preston Blier, Ann Dumas, Jack Flam, Claudine Grammont, Hélène Ivanoff, Marie-Thérèse Pulvenis de Seligny.
The personal objects in Matisse’s studio form a secret history in his art
This book is the first in English to explore the essential role that Henri Matisse’s personal collection of objects played in his studio practice. The artist traveled with his collection even to temporary residences, and letters to family members often included requests for objects to be moved to where he was working, revealing them to be critical creative stimulants. Featured frequently in the modern master’s bold paintings, drawings and cutouts, and influencing the development of his work in sculpture, Matisse’s objects formed a secret history hiding in plain sight.
Works that span Matisse’s entire career are presented here alongside the objects that inspired them, from Asian vases and African masks to intricate textiles from the Islamic world. An introduction and five chapters take readers through studies of the object as actor and the studio as theater, the importance of African art in Matisse’s renderings of the human form and his sitters’ inner selves, and the invention and transformation of his own language of signs. With lush illustrations and archival images, Matisse in the Studio provides exceptional insights into the artist at work.
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) was a painter, draftsman, sculptor and printmaker before turning to paper cut-outs in the 1940s. He followed a career-long path that he described as “construction by means of color.”
Ellen McBreen is Associate Professor of Art History at Wheaton College, Massachusetts.
Helen Burnham is Pamela and Peter Voss Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Suzanne Preston Blier is Allen Whitehill Clowes Professor of Fine Arts and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University.
Ann Dumas is Curator at the Royal Academy of Arts, London.
Jack Flam is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Art and Art History at Brooklyn College and The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and President of the Dedalus Foundation.
Claudine Grammont is Director and Chief Curator of the Musée Matisse, Nice.
Hélène Ivanoff is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Frobenius Institute of Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt.
Marie-Thérèse Pulvenis de Seligny is the former Director and Chief Curator of the Musée Matisse, Nice.
