HENRI HENRI Karl Buchberg is Senior Conservator, Henri Matisse, one of the twentieth century’s most The Museum of Modern Art, New York significant and influential artists, displayed a remarkable inventiveness in the final decade of his Nicholas Cullinan is Curator, Modern and career. Beginning in the late 1940s, he worked Contemporary Art, The Metropolitan Museum intensively with scissors and painted paper, cutting of Art vividly colored sheets into myriad shapes, from the botanical to the abstract, and arranging them Samantha Friedman is Assistant Curator, MATISSE MATISSE in lively compositions. Matisse famously described Department of Drawings and Prints, The Museum his process as “drawing with scissors,” and the of Modern Art, New York works that resulted, both modestly scaled and wall size, came to be known as cut-outs. Flavia Frigeri is Assistant Curator, Tate Modern This book, published in conjunction with the most comprehensive exhibition ever devoted to this Markus Gross is Chief Conservator, Fondation innovative body of work, presents a reconsidera- Beyeler tion of the cut-outs and is extensively illustrated to capture their vibrant, luminous presence. In Jodi Hauptman is Senior Curator, Department of addition to charting key moments in their emer- Drawings and Prints, The Museum of Modern Art, The Cut-Outs The Cut-Outs gence and subsequent development in the artist’s New York practice, Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs presents new research by curators and conservators on Stephan Lohrengel is Head of Paper Conservation, topics including the artist’s materials and methods, Stiftung Jüdisches Museum, Berlin his environmental ambitions for the cut-outs, as well as the tensions they suggest between fine Nicholas Serota is Director, Tate art and decoration, between drawing and color. A collection of archival photographs, some pub- lished here for the first time, offers a close look at the life of the cut-outs in Matisse’s studios. They show how he surrounded himself with them, and they reveal the way paper forms exhibited texture and materiality, curling off the walls and migrating within and between compositions. The cut-outs were a continuation of the artist’s longstanding engagement with color and contour and were a radical rethinking of the physicality and tempo- rality of the work of art—marking the brilliant culmination of Matisse’s career. Front cover: Blue Nude II spring 1952 BUCHBERG Gouache on paper, cut and pasted, on white paper, mounted on canvas, CULLINAN 116.2 x 88.9 (45¾ x 35) HAUPTMAN Centre Pompidou, Paris. Musée national d’art SEROTA moderne/Centre de création industrielle. Purchase, 1984 300 pp.; 314 images (250 color and 64 black-and-white) Back cover: Matisse’s studio, Villa le Rêve, Vence, France, Published by c. 1948 The Museum of Modern Art 11 West 53 Street New York, NY 10019-5497 www.moma.org HENRI MATISSE The Cut-Outs HENRI MATISSE The Cut-Outs Edited by Karl Buchberg, Nicholas Cullinan, Jodi Hauptman, and Nicholas Serota With essays by Karl Buchberg, Nicholas Cullinan, Samantha Friedman, Flavia Frigeri, Markus Gross, Jodi Hauptman, Stephan Lohrengel, and Nicholas Serota The Museum of Modern Art, New York Published in conjunction with the exhibition © Tate 2014 Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs, at The Museum Foreword 6 of Modern Art, New York All works by Henri Matisse © Succession H. Matisse/DACS 2014 The exhibition is organized by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in collaboration Copyright credits for certain illustrations with Tate Modern, London. appear on page 291. Exhibition dates: “Inventing a New Operation” and “Bodies Introduction and Waves,” by Jodi Hauptman Tate Modern, London © The Museum of Modern Art 2014 April 17–September 7, 2014 The STUDIO as INVENTING a ‘An AGREEABLE “Avant la Lettre” and “Game and SITE and SUBJECT 11 NEW OPERATION 17 DISTRACTION’ 25 The Museum of Modern Art, New York Endgame,” by Samantha Friedman October 25, 2014–February 9, 2015 © The Museum of Modern Art 2014 Karl Buchberg, Nicholas Cullinan, Jodi Hauptman Nicholas Cullinan Jodi Hauptman, and “Materials and Techniques,” by Nicholas Serota Karl Buchberg, Markus Gross, and Stephan Lohrengel © The Museum Bank of America is the Global Sponsor of of Modern Art 2014 Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs. Dimensions of artworks are given in In the Studio 31 Major support for the MoMA presentation centimeters, followed by inches, height is provided by The Horace W. Goldsmith before width. A Photo Essay Foundation. All rights reserved. Additional funding is provided by Dian Woodner and by the MoMA Annual Distributed in the United States and Exhibition Fund. Canada by ARTBOOK | D.A.P. 115 Sixth Avenue, 2nd floor, New York, Park Hyatt® is the hotel sponsor of Henri New York 10013 Chronicle Matisse: The Cut-Outs. www.artbook.com Library of Congress Control Number: AVANT la LETTRE 85 GAME and ENDGAME 125 CHAPEL FACTORY 153 Produced by Tate Publishing, London 2014934445 Samantha Friedman Samantha Friedman Flavia Frigeri ISBN: 978-0-87070-915-9 (hardcover) Edited by Colin Grant 978-0-87070-948-7 (paperback) Cover designed by Tony Lee BODIES and WAVES 193 CHROMATIC COMPOSITION 231 Interior designed by Fraser Muggeridge Printed in Italy Jodi Hauptman Nicholas Cullinan studio Color separations by DL Imaging Ltd, Front cover: Blue Nude II, spring 1952 (see London no. 110); back cover: Matisse's Studio, Villa Printed and bound by Graphicom SPA, Italy le Rêve, Vence, France, c. 1948; frontispiece: Acrobats, spring–summer 1952 (see no. 113); This book is typeset in Henry. page 8: Green Alga on Black Background The paper is 135gsm Gardapat Kiara. (The Swan), 1953. Gouache on paper, cut 7 9 and pasted, 81 x 65 (31 ⁄8 x 25 ⁄16). Private 253 Published in the United States and collection; endpapers (hardcover only): Materials and Techniques Canada by The Museum of Modern Art color chart of gouache paints produced by Karl Buchberg, Markus Gross, 11 West 53 Street, New York, New York Linel, France, illustrating the wide range of and Stephan Lohrengel 10019 colors available to Matisse for his cut-outs www.moma.org Published outside the United States and Canada by Tate Publishing, a division of Tate Enterprises Ltd, Millbank, London Notes 266 Selected Bibliography 279 List of Exhibited Works 284 SW1P 4RG www.tate.org.uk/publishing Index 292 Acknowledgments 295 Trustees of The Museum of Modern Art 298 tendency to change color over time. Karl proposed with keen eyes—conservators, conservation scien- Foreword replacing the mount with new, tan burlap close to the tists, curators, and art historians—and take advan- original color. The second goal was to return the work tage of new technologies, unprecedented and truly to its original height, and the third was to reinstall it to magical discoveries are possible. reflect the architecture of its original installation. Although The Swimming Pool is at the conceptual The genesis of Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs was the gouachés were pinned. There were many pin-pricks With these goals in mind, Karl began the lengthy heart of MoMA’s presentation of Henri Matisse: The ambitious conservation of The Swimming Pool, on the white paper which proved how carefully he and exacting work of conservation. About fifty-three Cut-Outs, the exhibition goes well beyond it, encom- Matisse’s epic work in cut paper and an icon in the disposed his decorations—often changing his mind.” feet of burlap had to be removed, often strand by passing works with a fuller palette, of differing degrees collection of The Museum of Modern Art. The artist Margaret Barr took note of the paper garden and a strand. New burlap was specially fabricated and dyed of abstraction and decoration, and in a range of sizes. created it in 1952 for the dining room of his home “bluish figure of a woman . with faint echoes of to match the color and weave of the original, and It is part of the Museum’s long and deep commitment and studio in the Hôtel Régina in Nice. By that time Botticelli’s Primavera” and both of them noted Karl decided to pin, rather than glue, the cut paper to to Matisse’s oeuvre, which comprises an outstanding he had been working intensively with cut paper as “around Matisse’s bedroom walls . a découpage it in order to evoke the sculptural qualities the forms collection that reflects his activities across mediums, his primary medium and with scissors as his chief design for the walls of a swimming pool.” Barr elab- would have had on Matisse’s wall; this would have the exhibitions that have considered both his entire implement for some years. The result was a radically orated on the “abstract motifs and a couple of swim- added benefit of allowing the sensitive papers to be career and more focused aspects, and new scholar- new form that came to be known as a “cut-out.” ming figures—half abstract.” But neither of them removed from the acidic burlap when the work was ship. Now, we offer a reconsideration of this impor- Depicting splashing and leaping swimmers, all in a suggested that they should think further about The not on exhibit. Finally, he worked with David Hollely, tant body of work, the most extensive pre sentation of reduced palette of blue and white, The Swimming Swimming Pool. Perhaps they were perplexed by its Associate Director of the Department of Exhibition the cut-outs ever mounted, with related drawings, Pool fulfilled Matisse’s grand ambition to work at the hybridity, by its straddling of decoration and fine art, Design and Production, to create a new room, con- illustrated books, stained glass, and textiles. We are scale of a mural, pushing beyond the limits of easel sculpture and work on paper, the architectural and structed with the proportions, details, and architecture deeply indebted to lenders, both private collectors painting; to viewers it offers a virtual catalogue of the painterly.