Matisse: The Red Studio at MoMA through September 10

I am now walking distance from the Museum of Modern Art, which makes my daily existence something of Sophie’s Choice for me. I ask myself, is there some way that I can skip away to the museum even for a moment? It is as if the MoMA collection is like a vortex in the desert lulling me away from the reality of mundane daily life. The great masters of Modernity are pulling me in ever closer to 53rd street. The artists in this collection have faced the great pressing questions of our time. Though I spent years with SFMOMA’s collection, the MOMA collection is unparalleled with its depth, diversity, and sheer scale. Nothing compares in modern art in the world. Not even close. I wander these galleries and they speak the truths we need to hear. Known for his mastery of color, Henri Matisse ranks in my favorite artists of all time. He also has one of the great artist beards, too. The current exhibit Matisse: The Red Studio is one of the most pleasurable small exhibits I have ever experienced. I have enjoyed the museum trend of focusing on one quality object rather than bloated exhibitions that overwhelm you. Split between two galleries, it is a bit of a treasure hunt of Matisse’s later artistic life and the story of how the painting came to be at MoMA and placing Matisse solidly as a driver in the development of the great US collection. As my friend Elspeth wrote so wonderfully here, context matters. Context here is the story. We often avoid describing the context fully. We may not even know the entire nuance of how, when, why an artist creates their work. In this exhibit, the curators act more like archeologists of Matisse than traditional art historians. This seems like a full anthropological attempt to understand Matisse as a man, a business partner, painter, and aging human. The video at the end of exhibit showed a range of curators that all approached different aspects of the painting. It was quite a collaboration, which was wonderful to see on full view and MoMA was not shy showcasing the extensive work that went into the exhibit during the pandemic.

Most of all the objects that still exist are together for the first time in a century. One of my favorite paintings on display here is the Sailor Boy, a stunningly androgynous figure.  Vibrant and layered, I love the widened eye and casual stance of this portrait. It has a certain, “Hey, look at me” quality. This sailor was not just sitting for Matisse, he was posing. No matter where I was in the gallery, I kept coming back to these eye, almost as I was struggling like I was Oedipus and the sailor was the Sphinx. (Another great painting in art history by Gustave Moreau). He was staring me down. 

Art finds its way to collections in a myriad of ways, through commission, auction, gifts, estate planning, etc. Here in the exhibit, they place letters from Board members advocating for the purchase of the picture along with Matisse’s first exhibit catalogues at MoMA. The ephemera here makes the context. People fought for this painting to be in New York. And I will end with the quote from a board member describing their own love of the picture here in the typewritten letter below. “Every time I look at it, I get such sheer pleasure out of it that any other reaction comes as an afterthought. It seems to me one of the few modern works to which the words “joyous” and “inspired” can both be applied without any qualification whatever.” I keep coming back to this painting. Maybe the picture is haunting me in the same way the rest of the collection is because I am now living a couple blocks away and it is so new for me. But, I think to myself that after three visits to the Red Studio, feeling inspired seems quite inadequate to describe the overall tenor of the painting’s impact. The painting is holistic, comprehensive, a requiem in a grand career. It seems like Matisse was finally offering up something that told us something of him not as only as a painter, but of himself as a human. 

On view in New York through Sept 10. If you aren’t in New York, the video, installation shots, and more info is all here.

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