The Unrelenting Ripple Effect of Matisse's Powerful Influence

Henri Matisse (1869-1954) revolutionised 20th-century art with his vibrant colour revolution. The powerful 'Matisse effect' forever altered the course of art and the language of the avant-garde. His influence remains vibrant today, as evidenced by the exhibition 'Chez Matisse. The Legacy of a New Painting', hosted by CaixaForum Madrid until February 22, celebrating the persistence of his unrelenting ripple effect.

The exhibition, a highlight of the season, was made possible due to the renovation works at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, which will be closed for five years. The high-tech museum designed by Richard Rodgers and Renzo Piano holds the largest collection of Matisse's works. A total of 253 pieces, 46 of which are on loan thanks to the renewed 2019 agreement with the La Caixa Foundation. These treasures are displayed alongside 49 other works by great 20th-century creators and contemporary artists.

The exhibition thus traverses the protean artistic adventure that turned Matisse's work into 'the house of modern art'. A symbolic space inhabited by artists of various generations who found and continue to find inspiration in his daring artistic language.

Creators like Georges Braque, André Derain, Robert and Sonia Delaunay, Natalia Goncharova, Mikhail Larionov, Picasso, and Le Corbusier coexist "in a play of cross-references that illuminates a century of creation and avant-garde," explains Aurélie Verdier, curator of the exceptional exhibition and chief conservator at the Pompidou.

"Modern art is a heart's outburst," said Matisse, who in 1900 shattered painting with his explosive use of colour. He then embarked on a long journey towards the essential, concluding in the 1950s when, already very ill, he reinvented the pictorial space with his famous 'collages'.

Verdier traces Matisse's essence through his passions and artistic challenges to explain the privileged place the genius artist holds in the art pantheon and how he captivated contemporary creators, his successors, and diverse audiences. "Primitive and sophisticated, classical and wild, figurative and abstract, Henri Matisse is a key figure of modernity, capable of dazzling other artists, who consider him a reference and a companion in artistic explorations," summarises the curator.

"His work is the result of relentless effort that led him to the complex mastery of simplicity," she adds. His career spans the anguish and introspection of the war years, culminating in the sensuality and hedonism of many of his late works. "The painter of joy is also the painter of anxiety and unease," Verdier emphasises.

Born into a family of weavers and pigment merchants in northern France, colour was in Matisse's genes. Although he studied law due to family pressure, he soon devoted himself to art. Painter, sculptor, printmaker, designer, and stage designer, Matisse never ceased experimenting across all genres and mediums.

He produced over a thousand paintings in a catalogue of more than 13,000 pieces. At 71, he underwent surgery for a life-threatening cancerous tumour. He survived for thirteen years with very limited mobility. Unable to paint or sculpt, he embraced 'collage' once more and created his famous 'cut-out gouaches', pieces that expanded the ripple effect of his legacy.

The exhibition begins with a self-portrait from 1900, painted in a symbolist style under the influence of his master Gustave Moreau. On walls of a very 'Matissean' salmon colour, iconic pieces follow, such as portraits of his eldest daughter at 16 and 20: 'Marguerite with Black Cat' and 'White and Pink Head', in a cubist style. Also 'Luxury I', a revolutionary work that scandalised at the 1907 Salon des Indépendants, and 'Open Window at Collioure', which Louis Aragon described as "the most mysterious painting ever created".

The exhibition concludes by reviewing Matisse's impact on contemporary artists like Barnett Newman, Daniel Buren, Raymond Hains, and Jacques Villeglé.

It also highlights the female perspective that emerged in the avant-garde through creators like Sonia Delaunay, Françoise Gilot, Natalia Goncharova, Anna-Eva Bergman, Zoulikha Bouabdellah, and Baya, the pseudonym of Fatma Haddad. An Algerian autodidact and very precocious, Baya was 'Matissean' at just twelve years old. Discovered at sixteen by the dealer and gallery owner Aimé Maeght and sponsored by Picasso, DuBuffet, Breton, and Camus, she remains largely unknown today.