Speakers 
 
Min Jung Kim 
Barbara B. Taylor Director 
Saint Louis Art Museum 
 
Simon Kelly 
Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art 
Saint Louis Art Museum 

[Min]
Hello, I am Min Jung Kim, Barbara B. Taylor Director of the Saint Louis Art Museum.

I am delighted to welcome you to the audio guide for Matisse and the Sea. This is the first exhibition to explore the importance of the sea across the career of the leading French Modernist painter, Henri Matisse. Over several decades, the sea acted as a crucial catalyst for Matisse’s pioneering experiments in color and light. This exhibition has a range of wonderful loans from Europe and North America and is anchored by a pivotal work in the Museum’s collection, Bathers with a Turtle. To tell you more, I’d like to introduce the exhibition curator, Simon Kelly, curator of modern and contemporary art.

[Simon]
Thank you, Min. Matisse loved the sea. This exhibition explores the extraordinary variety of marine imagery that Matisse produced over his long career. As you move through this display, you will see coastal views of the Mediterranean Sea, as well as the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. You’ll travel from the picturesque fishing port of Collioure in the south-west of France to the resort town of Nice on the French Riviera to the islands and atolls of French Polynesia. You’ll experience panoramic vistas as well as quasi-surreal imaginings of life beneath the waves. You’ll also be able to explore a fresh interpretation of the Saint Louis Art Museum’s own Bathers with a Turtle, an enigmatic masterwork of three women by the sea.

In his writings, Matisse evocatively described the colors of the sea, sometimes blue like the wings of a butterfly, and sometimes green like the color of jade. Although I think we often imagine Matisse as very cerebral, his deep attachment to the sea was a highly physical one and informed by his love of swimming and diving. While in the Mediterranean, he would swim every day as part of his routine. He was also an avid rower who won a prize for his diligent turnout at meetings of the Nautical Club of Nice. For Matisse, the sea was also an invitation to voyage and travel, and he did travel extensively to France’s wide network of colonies.

This exhibition guide offers commentaries from several individuals. In addition to my voice, you will hear from other art historians, as well as a wildlife veterinarian and a conservation biologist.

We encourage you to experience this guide in any order you like. You may follow it in numeric order or pick and choose. Each featured object can be located by following the floorplan on this webpage or by identifying the audio icon on the object’s label in the exhibition. Whether you’re listening from home or in the Museum’s galleries, I hope you enjoy this audio guide and your visit to Matisse and the Sea.