When Henri Matisse began his famous cut-paper works in the 1930s, he noted that “It is no longer the brush that slips and slides over the canvas, it is the scissors that cut into the paper and into the colour. The conditions of the journey are 100 per cent different.”
More different still will be the new one-night cinematic re-creation of the blockbuster exhibition Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs from the Tate Modern, which hits theaters across the US on January 13. The movie takes audiences on a virtual guided tour of the exhibitions, and adds archival footage of the artist at work, interviews with Matisse’s friends, Tate director Nicholas Serota and MoMA director Glenn Lowry, and new footage from The Museum of Modern Art, where the exhibit is currently on view through February 8, 2015. Performances by Royal Ballet principal dancer Zenaida Yanowsky and jazz musician Courtney Pine which reflect the color, the freedom and the innovation of Matisse’s work.
The audience-blending film was produced by Phil Grabsky’s Exhibitions on Screen and is organized here through “event cinema” company Fathom Events, which does screenings of one-time events like boxing matches and theatrical productions. Matisse From the Tate Modern and MoMA is showing at IMAX and XD theaters everywhere, with an especially long list of Texas venues.
1 comment
I got to see this show at MOMA. The cut paper pieces always feel like a bit of a swindle; although it opens one to accusations of ageism to say so, these glorified studies simply aren’t as good as his earlier paintings. (They’re different! the apologists cry, It’s unfair to compare the two!) Oh well: fire up the cash registers, because here’s some art that looks great on oven mitts and pencil cups, and there’s a heartwarming story to go with it.