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November Issue 2004
Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro, NC, Features Exhibit of Works by Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse was one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. An exhibition at the Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, NC, explores the nature of that influence on the work of American artists, and features four drawings by Matisse on loan from The Baltimore Museum of Art's famous Claribel and Etta Cone Collection in addition to works from the Weatherspoon permanent collection. A Legacy In Line: Matisse And American Drawing will be on view in the Tannenbaum Gallery through Dec. 12, 2004.
Matisse was one of the founders of the Salon d'Automne in 1903, and with other painters known as the Fauves ("wild beasts") for their bright, bold color, created a sensation with that exhibition in 1905. By the time of the First World War, he was widely recognized as a leading modernist.
Matisse introduced his synthetic style and his rebellious artistic motivations to students enrolled at the Académie Matisse, which operated from 1908-1911 in Paris. Among the Americans studying there were Max Weber, Morgan Russell, and Sarah Stein, all of whom are represented in the exhibition.
Before he died in Nice in 1954, the Musée Nationale d'Art Moderne began to build a representative collection of Matisse's work; an exhibition was held in his honor at the Salon d'Automne in 1945; he was given a major retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York; and the Musée Matisse was inaugurated in 1952. His work was ubiquitous, making the possibility of influence on numerous subsequent artists likely.
Into the 1970s and up to the present day, Matisse's example, spiritually as well as stylistically, continues to appeal. Matisse once famously said that he wanted his art to have the same effect on people as a nice comfortable chair for a businessman at the end of a hard day. In Dorothy Block's drawing, Interior, the artist indulges this blatantly romantic armchair philosophy. Her image is pure Matisse in its black and white reverie, as it recalls languorous hours spent gazing out at the Riviera.
Weatherspoon is home to one of the finest
collections of contemporary art in the Southeast, presenting more
than twenty exhibitions and a full host of educational activities
annually. Recent exhibitions, such as From Warhol to Pop and
Back Again, Georgia O'Keeffe from Southern Collections, and
Borne of Necessity have drawn record audiences and critical
acclaim.
Exhibitions also on view include:
American Art: 1900 1960, on view through Dec. 23,
2004; Beverly McIver: Paintings, on view through Dec. 19,
2004; Art On Paper 2004, on view from Nov. 14, 2004 through
Jan. 16, 2005; and Phoebe Washburn, on view from Nov. 14,
2004 through Feb. 20, 2005.
For more information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings, call the Museum at 336/334-5770 or at (www.weatherspoon.uncg.edu).
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc. Copyright© 2004 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts Online, Copyright© 2004 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.