Page 51 - ART GIANTS issue of World of Art (WOA) Contemporary Art Magazine

Installation view, Matisse’s Cut-Outs: A Celebration, on view in gallery 406
REUNITING NUIT DE NOËL WITH ITS STAINED-GLASS at The Museum of Modern Art from November 9, 2024, through January 20,
COUNTERPART 2025. Photo by Jonathan Dorado © The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
In Gallery 406A, adjacent to The Swimming Pool, the
Henri Matisse (French, 1869–1954). Memory of Oceania (Souvenir d’Océanie).
installation will bring Matisse’s stained-glass window Nuit de Nice-Cimiez, Hôtel Régina, summer 1952-early 1953. Gouache on paper,
Noël (Christmas Eve) back to public view for the first time in cut and pasted, and charcoal on paper mounted on canvas, 9'4"″ x 9'4 7/8"″
(284.4 x 286.4 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Mrs. Simon
a decade, alongside its original paper maquette. Created in
Guggenheim Fund © 2024 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society
1952 with master glassmaker Paul Bony, the window was (ARS), New York. Photo: Jonathan Muzikar.
commissioned by Life magazine and originally displayed in New
York’s Time and Life Building before being gifted to MoMA in
1953. Reflecting on the relationship between paper and glass,
Matisse famously remarked, “A maquette for a stained-glass
window and the window itself are like a musical score and its
performance by an orchestra.”

HIGHLIGHTS AND LEGACY
Arranged chronologically, the installation will begin with
selections from Jazz (1947), one of modern art’s most
celebrated illustrated books, and conclude with Memory
of Oceania (1952–53), a monumental composition bridging
reference and abstraction. Also featured are rare samples
of gouache-painted paper recovered from Matisse’s studio,
revealing the vibrant palette that animated his cut-outs.
Initially dismissed as “an agreeable distraction” by critics,
Matisse’s cut-outs are now recognized as a defining innovation
of his career, an enduring testament to his restless creativity
and pioneering vision.

WORLD of ART 51