ST. LOUIS, DEC. 27, 2023—“Matisse and the Sea” opens in February at the Saint Louis Art Museum. The exhibition is the first to examine the significance of the sea and related imagery across the artist’s extensive career, including works he made from coastal locations on the Mediterranean and the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Inspired by SLAM’s own landmark painting “Bathers with a Turtle,” the exhibition traces Matisse’s evolution in depicting the sea—from early renderings of the Mediterranean to abstract evocations later in life—through approximately 75 paintings, sculptures, paper cut-outs, textiles, ceramics, drawings and prints, as well as works by African and Oceanic artists that served as sources of inspiration for Matisse. The exhibition will be on view at SLAM from Feb. 17 through May 12, 2024.
“‘Matisse and the Sea’ provides a fresh, new perspective on an essential motif in Matisse’s art,” said Simon Kelly, SLAM’s curator of modern and contemporary art. “The sea, in all its color and motion, served as a crucial catalyst for the artist’s formal experimentation over more than five decades. At the same time, it served as a metaphor for his global outlook and his engagement with and appropriation of highly inventive artworks from Africa and Polynesia, often within a French colonial framework.”
Henri Matisse, French, 1869–1954; “Bathers with a Turtle”, 1907–08; oil on canvas; 71 1/2 x 87 in. (181.6 x 221 cm); Saint Louis Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Pulitzer Jr. 24:1964; © 2024 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
The enigmatic “Bathers with a Turtle,” painted in 1907-1908, depicts three nude female figures in a timeless, abstracted seascape. As the exhibition argues, it is a fusion of European and African artistic traditions and, as such, representative of Matisse’s radical approach. It was painted at a pivotal moment in the artist’s evolution toward monumental, radically simplified compositions. New technical examinations of the painting conducted for this exhibition reveal Matisse’s extensive revisions to the work. He transformed an earlier landscape of clouds, hills and boats to a pared down background of flat bands of green, ultramarine and teal blue. He also made dramatic changes to the poses and gestures of the three bathers, moving them across the canvas and reworking their limbs and facial features. The atmosphere of the painting is unusual for Matisse in its lack of playfulness, and the standing central figure’s curious yet anxious expression is unique in the artist’s body of work.
More broadly, using the sea as both a subject and a backdrop allowed Matisse to develop radical approaches to depicting color, light and the human form. The exhibition traces this evolution through seven different sections. In the first, From Brittany to the Mediterranean Coast: The Early Years, the viewer is situated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as Matisse is beginning to come to prominence. Works in this section include Matisse’s “La plage rouge” and “Collioure (La Moulade)” along with others such as André Derain’s “Boats at Collioure.” Together, these works demonstrate the importance of marine themes in Matisse’s early Fauve experimentation.
The second section of the exhibition, Collioure: A Constellation of Influences, brings audiences closer to the origins of “Bathers with a Turtle,” which dates to Matisse’s pivotal time in Collioure, a port town in southwestern France near the border with Spain, starting in 1905. The town’s landscape for Matisse evoked the topography and natural light of the French colony of Algeria, which he visited in 1906. In Collioure, Matisse fully embraced Fauvism, and his fascination with African art also continued to grow. Among the works included in this section are Matisse’s bronze sculpture “Two Women,” accompanied by a selection of African sculptures, whose formal innovations Matisse appropriated. The section also includes work by other related artists such as Paul Gauguin, Aristide Maillol and Derain.
Henri Matisse, French, 1869–1954; “Seated Woman, Back Turned to the Open Window”, c.1922; oil on canvas; 28 7/8 x 36 7/16 inches; The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Purchase, John W. Tempest Fund 2024.07; © 2024 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
The third section of the exhibition, Bathers with a Turtle: A Fusion of European and African Traditions, includes this central painting surrounded by key works in its evolution such as Cezanne’s “Three Bathers” and sub-Saharan African sculptures—a Baga artist’s “D’mba Figures” from Guinea and a Pende artist’s “Giwoyo Mask” from the Democratic Republic of Congo. These related works were all originally in Matisse’s personal collection. “Bathers with a Turtle” is also reunited with its preparatory painted study, the 1907 “Three Bathers,” for the first time in decades, thus allowing for a new understanding of the move from naturalism to abstraction in Matisse’s process. In this context, “Bathers with a Turtle” emerges as a pivotal point, underscored by the new examinations of the painting that demonstrate how much Matisse modified and abstracted the composition.
Another decade on, the next section, Nice and the Mediterranean Coast: The 1920s, shows Matisse continuing to explore presentations of the water, but with more traditionally composed scenes painted in Nice on the French Riviera. Two paintings titled “Interior at Nice,” one from 1919 and the other from 1919 or 1920, show seated figures with a view both inside their home and out to the beach in the distance. The “Seated Woman, Back Turned to the Open Window” from 1922 highlights Matisse’s fascination with the changing colors of the sea, as well as his ongoing interest in abstraction and simplification.
In 1930, when faced with painter’s block, Matisse traveled to French Polynesia for a restorative three-month sojourn. The works inspired by that visit are featured in the sections French Polynesia I and French Polynesia II. The trip provided an entirely new set of visual frameworks, now concentrating on life beneath the waves. Matisse’s profound artistic response to these experiences emerged nearly 15 years later in the images for his book “Jazz,” which featured three “Lagoon” designs created through his new paper cut-out technique and which immersed viewers in underwater aquatic motifs. The exhibition includes these prints as well as the large-scale silkscreen tapestries “Oceania, the Sea” and “Oceania, the Sky” and several Indigenous Polynesian and Melanesian objects similar to those that inspired him.
Henri Matisse, French, 1869–1954; “Blue Nude I”, 1947; gouache, painted paper cut-outs on canvas; 41 7/8 x 30 11/16 inches; Foundation Beyeler Collection, Inv.60.1; © 2024 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
The final section of the exhibition, Late Paper Cut-Outs, will help audiences cement their understanding both of Matisse’s artistic evolution and the enduring impact of the sea on his artistic vision. Although his focus on making paper cut-outs was driven in part by the pain and disability imposed following illness, works such as “Blue Nude I,” “Blue Nude, the Frog” and “Venus” highlight Matisse’s return to the bather theme of “Bathers with a Turtle,” now re-imagined in a new medium. Matisse created these “Blue Nude” cut-outs in a shade of ultramarine blue that directly reflects his passion for the sea. At the same time, these works take Matisse’s abstracted figures to new places, representing the culmination of his artistic career and impacting the work of many later artists, including the American abstract expressionists.
“This exhibition underscores the strengths of the Saint Louis Art Museum, taking a beloved painting from our collection and, from this starting point, identifying an opportunity to explore a new an important theme in Henri Matisse’s life and work,” said Min Jung Kim, the Barbara B. Taylor Director of the Saint Louis Art Museum. “I am confident that ‘Matisse and the Sea’ will resonate with our audiences both in St. Louis and beyond, demonstrating the enduring impact of Matisse on the direction of modern art.”
“Matisse and the Sea” is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with essays by distinguished Matisse scholars examining the artist’s abiding connection to the water, including John Klein, Ellen McBreen and curator Simon Kelly, along with a section on the technical research into “Bathers with a Turtle” by SLAM paintings conservator Melissa Gardner. There are also detailed catalogue entries on the artworks in the exhibition.
There will be a host of diverse programs that accompany the exhibition in St. Louis including lectures, concerts and a related film screening. A SLAM-produced audio guide will also be available, featuring eight stops and speakers ranging from museum curatorial team members to a wildlife veterinarian and conservation biologist from the Saint Louis Zoo Institute for Conservation Medicine. Also, a video in the exhibition space will further explore “Bathers with a Turtle,” including curator Simon Kelly and conservator Melissa Gardner discussing conservation findings such as Matisse’s earlier versions of the painting discovered under the layers as well the color palette he used.
Funding for this exhibition is provided by the Edward L. Bakewell Jr. Endowment for Special Exhibitions. In-kind support is provided by Christie’s.
“Matisse and the Sea” is produced with the support of the FRench American Museum Exchange (FRAME).
CONTACT: Molly Morris, 314.655.5250, molly.morris@slam.org
