Matisse: "The Red Studio"
“Now more than 110 years old, “The Red Studio” is a landmark in the centuries-old tradition of studio paintings and a foundational work of modern art,” says Ann Temkin, chief curator at the Museum of Modern Art. “The image continues to be a touchstone for any artist who takes on the task of portraying their studio. Matisse's radical decision to saturate the work's surface with a layer of red has fascinated generations of scholars and artists, including Mark Rothko and Ellsworth Kelly. However, there is still much to be explored in terms of the origin and history of the painting.” The large canvas depicts the artist's studio full of paintings, sculptures, furniture and decorative objects. The Fondation Louis Vuitton brings together the works exhibited in “The Red Studio” for the first time since they left Matisse's studio in Issy-les-Moulineaux, and includes archival materials as well as related paintings and drawings.
The exhibition (May 4 - November 9) presents the six surviving paintings, three sculptures and one ceramic depicted in “The Red Studio”. Created between 1898 and 1911, these objects range from well-known paintings, such as “Young Sailor (II)” (1906) – which will be exhibited in France for the first time in 31 years – to lesser-known works, such as “Corsica”, “The Old Man Mill” (1898) and objects whose locations have only recently been discovered.
Paintings and drawings closely related to “The Red Studio” are also included, helping to chronicle the painting's complex path from Matisse's studio to its eventual acquisition by the Museum of Modern Art. A rich selection of archival materials – many published or exhibited for the first time in connection with this project – reveals new information about the painting's subject matter, evolution, and reception.
“The Red Studio”, by Matisse, depicts the artist's studio in the town of Issy-les-Moulineaux. The Red Studio was painted as part of a sequence of works commissioned by Sergei Shchukin, Matisse's most loyal and courageous patron. Shchukin purchased the painting's predecessor, “The Pink Studio,” but refused to acquire “The Red Studio.” The painting remained in Matisse's possession for 16 years. During this period, he traveled to London in 1912 for the Second Post-Impressionist Exhibition, and to New York, Chicago and Boston for the 1913 Armory Show.
The Red Studio was purchased in 1927 by David Tennant, the founder of the Gargoyle Club in London, a members-only club that catered to artists and aristocrats alike. The painting hung in the Gargoyle Club until the early 1940s; soon after it was acquired by Georges Keller, director of Bignou Gallery in New York. In 1949, “The Red Studio” was acquired for the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
The work then acquired a second life. From 1949 onwards, New York artists and everyone who passed by stopped in front of the painting, whose radical novelty was suddenly rediscovered. In the late 1940s, Matisse himself referred to what made the 1911 work unique: its “abstraction”, due to the astonishing prevalence of the color red. Matisse then developed a new series of paintings using the artist's studio environment as subject matter, particularly the 1948 “Large Red Interior”, which entered the collections of the Musée National d'Art Moderne in 1950 after being exhibited in New York by his son. , Pierre Matisse, in February 1949. This work is present in the exhibition.
The dialogue between “The Red Studio” from 1911 and “The Great Red Interior” from 1948 is highlighted in the Foundation's exhibition, demonstrating how, over a period of almost 40 years, Matisse reinterpreted this pioneering painting at a time when his work was undergo profound changes. The two paintings had parallel lives, serving as inspiration for many American and European artists.
Source: E-Flux