Henri
Matisse: A Celebration of French Poets and Poetry
An
exhibition of selected works consisting of forty-seven (47)
lithographs printed in Sanguine and sixteen (16) etchings in drypoint.
In
1930 Matisse was to produce perhaps his greatest etchings--a collection
of 29 drypoints for Mallarmé Stéphane's Poésies,
published in Lausanne by Albert Skira with an edition of 145 copies.
Matisse responded to Skira's invitation to illustrate the poems
with great enthusiasm and gave most of his attention to the commission
that summer while he was residing in Paris, while the Barnes mural
absorbed all of his time during the winter in the south of France.
The subject matter of the twenty-nine etchings, like the poems
themselves, varies considerably, and while there are images that
reflect his earlier work, there are also casual references to
his experiences in Tahiti.
"After
1928, (Matisse) was not again to concern himself with myth or
poetry or literature for around twenty-five years. Yet when he
did he produced one of his greatest masterpieces, the design and
illustration of Mallarmé's Poésies."
The
etchings for Poésies came about as a proposal from Albert
Skira almost immediately after Matisse returned to France from
Tahiti in 1930. Many of the images show the artist's recollections
of the South Pacific.
"I
made some of my etchings, after hundreds of drawings and research
studies in the definition of form. Then I executed the plates
with my eyes shut."
In
1941, Matisse began one of his most complicated and most successful
printmaking projects-Floriléges des Amours de Ronsard,
a project that he began while convalescing following a series
of surgical procedures that left him a partial invalid for the
remainder of his life. He began working on the Florilége
prints with the publisher Albert Skira, but due to the war and
problems with printing, the project was delayed and during the
separation between the artist and his publisher, Matisse made
several revisions and changes in the work. His original plan called
for illustrating approximately thirty poems by the 16th Century
French poet Pierre de Ronsard, but seven years later he had composed
an expanded version consisting of one hundred twenty six images,
including some vignettes.
"Matisse's
readings of Ronsard were channeled into imaginative conceptions
and creative responses to Ronsard's poems about women and love.
. . they are to be gazed at, admired, desired, and consumed."
| ---
|
Marcia
Reed |
|
Curator
of Collections |
| |
Getty
Research Institute |
The
subjects and strong imagery of Ronsard's poems lent themselves
gracefully to Matisse's favored themes-fruits, flowers, the female
figure, and portraits. He did not complete the series until 1948.
Matisse selected all of the poems himself and created a magnificent
tribute to one of the greatest literary figures of the French
Renaissance, Pierre de Ronsard. Matisse also translated each poem
from Renaissance French to contemporary French spoken today, for
the publication of his anthology of Ronsard's love poems.
[This
exhibition lends itself to interpretations of Modernism and the
history of the Renaissance period with poetry readings in both
French and English as well as performances of chamber music. CDs
are also available (Arion Label) with music arranged by Stephane
Caillat who studied at the Conservatoire de Lyon and at the Coinservatoire
National de Paris. Other ensemble music of the period is available
for live performances conducted by local philharmonic groups.
Please call Contemporary & Modern Print Exhibitions for more
details.]
Monographs for the catalog were prepared by Marcia Reed, Curator
of Collections, J. Paul Getty Research Institute; and Darrin Wilde,
French Literature Dept., University of California, Irvine.
