Drawn from the extraordinary collection of Matisse prints that once belonged to the artist’s son, Pierre, and is now part of the Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation, Matisse as Printmaker includes approximately sixty-three etchings, monotypes, aquatints, lithographs, linocuts in black and white, and two-color prints—examples of every type of printmaking utilized by Matisse. The exhibition underscores the importance of his work in series, as well as such recurring motifs as the standing, seated, and reclining nude, and brings this unfamiliar and under-studied material to a wider audience.

Henri Matisse (1869–1954) may be best known as a painter and sculptor, but he himself placed no hierarchy on the mediums in which he worked. Each medium was exploited for its unique possibilities and became totally integrated with other formal and thematic concerns. It is in drawing, and by extension printmaking, however, that Matisse reveals most openly the focus of his thematic interests. In the print imagery, we see the significance of the series in Matisse’s art, as one motif, such as a reclining nude, becomes a progression of images. The serial aspects of printmaking uniquely mirror the artist’s process by taking the viewer around a model with different points of view as the process of studio modeling continues. Matisse as Printmaker includes series such as nudes in the studio, friends and family members, women watching fish in a bowl, leg studies, and odalisques.

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue including an essay exploring Matisse’s use of printmaking throughout his career by Guest Curator Jay McKean Fisher, Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs and Senior Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Exhibition Itinerary: The Baltimore Museum of Art (October 25, 2009–January 3, 2010); Tampa Museum of Art (February 4–April 18, 2010); The Blanton Museum of Art (May 23–August 1, 2010); and Art Gallery of Alberta (October 29, 2010–February 13, 2011).

For more information, contact Curator Lisa Small at 212.988.7700 ext. 225 or lsmall@afaweb.org. You may also contact Curatorial Assistant Elisabeth Sherman at 212.988.7700 ext. 216 or esherman@afaweb.org.