Pierre Matisse

Description

The exhibition at the Matisse Museum revisits the exceptional career of Pierre Matisse, ¬ ls of Henri Matisse, who became one of the most important art dealers of the 20th century. For nearly fifty years, the Pierre Matisse Gallery played a considerable role in the defense of French and European modern art in the United States during a period that shaped the great American private and institutional collections. Through more than three hundred exhibitions, a whole generation of European artists was able to exist on the New York scene and contribute to its dynamism: Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, Balthasar Balthus, Alberto Giacometti and Jean Dubuffet, to name but a few. The exhibition and its catalog retrace this odyssey through more than fifty works by twenty-two of the gallery's essential artists. These works are divided into four sections that represent the main milestones in the history of the Pierre Matisse Gallery between 1931 and 1989. Around the works, the path of this journey will be materialized by all the catalogs of the gallery, often real typographic treasures, with beautiful and rare folios, that he realizes with the artists themselves. The exhibition also offers a sensitive understanding of the work of Pierre Matisse, through his friendships and commitments with artists, using numerous archives, correspondence and photographs.
Pierre Matisse (1900-1989) initially intended to pursue a career as an artist before deciding to leave France in 1924 and settle as an art dealer in New York. In 1931, he opened his gallery in the Fuller Building, which became one of the most important places for modern art on the other side of the Atlantic and a hub for Franco-American cultural transfers